


Of Angels and Elementals

by Allerleirauh



Series: Summer of Idfic [2]
Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Sapphire and Steel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Angels, Community: Fic Rush, Daemons, Elements, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Idfic, Lemurs, M/M, Transformation, Trope Bingo Round 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-08
Updated: 2013-08-18
Packaged: 2017-12-22 19:18:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 65,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/917046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allerleirauh/pseuds/Allerleirauh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steel and Silver have been assigned. Their destination: Oxford. Upon their arrival they soon discover that they’ve stumbled into a trap — a trap specifically designed to capture an elemental. The question is what is more perilous? Steel realising that he is slowly turning human, Silver discovering that he’s somehow ended up as Steel’s dæmon or the fact that a dark shadow is transforming innocent school-boys into statues?</p><p>This is obviously pre-HDM. In Lord Asriel’s world elements are called elementals. The story can be read as Gen or Pre-Slash, just choose according to your preferences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Elementals don’t have dæmons.

If you asked around, you would invariably get quite a few different theories as to the reasons why.

The people from the Magisterium would be rather quick to answer. ‘It’s because they don’t have a soul,’ they would say, sparing you nothing more than a casual glance before turning their attention to other things that are undoubtedly far more important. There is no love lost between these two: the Magisterium and the elementals.

If you asked the learned folk at Jordan College they would start telling you long-winded stories about other worlds and dimensions, about Dust and how elementals might be, not unlike angels, a condensed form of it.

The Gyptians would simply roll their eyes, telling you to leave those poor people alone, claiming that dealings with such like could only lead to their bad luck rubbing off on you. Their approach is always the pragmatic.

Lord Asriel has heard all of those theories. Yet, as a man blessed with as keen an intellect as his, none of them is enough to satisfy his burning curiosity, his ambition to discover the true nature of these beings.


	2. Steel

“I can think of quite a few experiments I would like to perform on you,” Lord Asriel said, giving Steel a long and considering look. His dark voice reverberated through the large and windowless vault, causing whispery echoes to float around, allowing them to crawl into all the dark places where the soft glow of the sparsely placed anbaric lights couldn’t reach. His dæmon, a large snow-leopard, currently lounging on a nearby bench, was a picture of graceful serenity, only an occasional flick of its tail betraying the tension that had settled over the room.

Steel had spent the last hour carefully scrutinizing both the human and his dæmon. He felt slightly at a loss, a feeling that was as unwelcome as it was uncomfortable. He had arrived on the grounds of Jordan College some time ago. Together with Silver he had been sent here to investigate an irregularity and for a while they had managed to roam the college precinct relatively unhindered. There had been a rather superficial questioning by the master of the college, but Steel had been able to get rid of the fool quickly enough. At that point he and Silver had already split up in their search, so he had chosen an efficient if decidedly ruthless approach to befuddle the old man, an approach that Silver, most likely, would have frowned upon. It had served its purpose, though, and that was all that had mattered to Steel.

It hadn’t been long after his encounter with the master that something inexplicable had happened. It was this, that he couldn’t remember.

He clearly remembered walking through the main aisle of the college’s library. The next thing he knew, he was coming to his senses in this vault, in a cage, having absolutely no idea how he had ended up here. It felt as if his mind had simply erased the time in-between, leaving him with no information to fill the gap between being in the library and waking up in captivity. To make matters even worse, there was a suspicious and worrying lack of Silver.

“And what do you hope to learn from those experiments?” Steel asked now. He watched as Lord Asriel slowly came forward until he stood directly in front of the cage, giving Steel an appraising look, taking him in from head to toe. Steel knew enough about this man to take the stare for what it was: the gaze of the skilled experimenter focusing on a new and fascinating subject. Silver had mentioned this human to him and though Steel hadn’t listened with more half an ear at the time, he could distinctly remember the phrase ‘brilliant, determined and disconcertingly ruthless’ that Silver had used to describe the human. It left Steel feeling even more on edge now. He wanted to get out of there. Yet it wouldn’t do letting his unease show and so he took the half step necessary to close the distance between them until he stood as close to his cage’s bars as was possible. This cage was an old-fashioned one, made out of blackened cast iron, and to Steel’s considerable annoyance he had discovered earlier that his strength seemed to be of no use in getting out of it. He had tried bending the cage’s bars, had tried to pull them apart, but had fast given up on his attempt when said bars hadn’t so much as budged a single millimetre under his hands. The chuckle his attempt had produced, coming from Lord Asriel, who was now giving him such an impertinent stare, hadn’t helped his dour mood in the slightest.

“Oh, I’m sure there is a lot I could learn from you,” Lord Asriel said, his face taking on a thoughtful expression. “Ever since one of your kind came to our world for the first time I have wanted to study you. Your very existence seems to break so many laws of nature. It always made me wonder—” He broke off. There was a soft scraping sound coming from somewhere near the vault’s shadowy ceiling. Staring upwards, Lord Asriel furrowed his brows.

Steel followed his gaze, and out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Lord Asriel’s dæmon slowly rising to its legs. Gliding down from the bench, it slowly came over to them, its eyes fixed on the ceiling. It growled, not loudly, but nonetheless — or maybe just because of this — it sounded even more dangerous.

For some time all three of them stared at the ceiling, until suddenly there was a loud clattering sound coming not from above but from the far side of the room. Then something, moving fast enough to leave only a blurry impression, skittered across the floor — something black and white and grey and decidedly bushy-tailed that sped towards Steel’s cage and shot through the bars.

Steel saw the snow-leopard jump forward, heard the sharp clicking sound when its teeth closed around air, as it tried to catch the creature before it was out of the dæmon’s reach and failed.

Something had fled into Steel’s cage and that something was quickly climbing up his legs and his back. Steel hadn’t even managed to get one clear look at the creature and now he was feeling the grip of small hands making their way up his body until a surprisingly heavy weight settled on his neck and right shoulder while something decidedly warm and furry started to coil around his throat.

_It’s me_.

The words, spoken in Silver’s voice, echoed softly through his mind. They stopped him before he could follow through with his first, instinctive reaction of trying to get rid of whatever it was that had decided to use him as a furniture substitute. It had been a long time since Silver’s voice had sounded so welcome in his mind.

_Where have you been?_ he asked Silver while he watched a look of surprise slowly stealing its way over Lord Asriel’s features. Strangely enough, Steel didn’t get any reply from Silver. _Silver?_ he repeated, but again there was nothing but silence in answer.

“I don’t understand,” Lord Asriel said, his eyes focused on Silver.

While Steel wasn’t clear about the exact shape Silver had taken on and still worried about not getting any response from him, he had no doubt what sort of picture the two of them must present to Lord Asriel now.

Unlike in other dimensions the people of _this_ world possessed a disconcertingly large amount of knowledge about Steel and his kind. They knew about elementals, as they insisted on calling them. They had a basic understanding of their purpose and objectives, and they knew that elementals weren’t supposed to have dæmons. It was especially this last fact that had led to strong tensions on the first encounters between elements and the humans of this world. To some extent that was also the reason for the unusual amount of knowledge the humans of this world had about elements. Here, elementals couldn’t blend in. They were set apart by their lack of a dæmon.

Yet, here he stood now, an elemental, and on his shoulder was sitting what quite evidently had to be his dæmon. Steel couldn’t help a smirk at the increasingly baffled look on Lord Asriel’s face.

The feeling of a warm and furry snout nuzzling against his ear distracted him from his observations. He flinched, which in turn led to a pair of small hands firmly grabbing his hair as Silver struggled not to lose his balance. Steel had to fight against the impulse not to shake himself even more violently to be rid of the unfamiliar weight and sensation.

“Steel?” Silver whispered into his ear. “Steel? Why aren’t you saying anything? And could you please stop twitching around like that?”

Typical. The first words he actually heard coming from Silver and already the fool was complaining. “What do you mean, I haven’t answered? Of course, I have. Haven’t you heard me?” Steel whispered back, but even as he spoke it suddenly dawned on him what the problem might be. _Silver_? he asked again, reaching out with just his mind, only to be greeted by another eerie silence. Something was obviously wrong with him, something profound that was hindering him from using his natural abilities. While he was able to hear Silver’s thoughts if Silver directed them at him, the other way around didn’t seem to work anymore.

“You have a dæmon?” Lord Asriel asked, interrupting Steel’s train of thought. He looked down at his own dæmon, the snow-leopard, as if he needed its affirmation of what he was seeing with his own eyes. The snow-leopard was staring at Steel and Silver warily, but it nodded at Lord Asriel nevertheless, silently acknowledging that there was, indeed, some form of dæmon sitting on Steel’s shoulder.

“It’s none of your concern,” Steel replied. He felt anxious to get rid of this human and his dæmon, to be left alone until he had gained a bit more of an understanding what had happened. “Why don’t you go away?” he asked. It wasn’t as much a question, as it was a clumsy attempt at rudeness. He didn’t think it would work, but right now he didn’t have many options.

Lord Asriel gave him an unpleasant smile in response. Anger glowed in his eyes. “I think you’re forgetting who the captor and who the captive is here. It’s certainly not for _you_ to decide what’s going to happen next.”

Silence fell between them as they stared at one another in open hostility. Steel was about to give in when, almost as if in answer to his wishes, a loud knocking sounded through the vault, coming from a door at the far side of it. Someone wanted to be let in.

For a while Lord Asriel simply continued to stare at Steel, but when the knocking didn’t stop, but grew only more insistent, he finally rolled his eyes and sighed. “It seems, there are matters that I need to attend to,” he said. He turned and, with his dæmon closely following on his heels, he took a few steps towards the door before he turned once again. Giving Steel another imperious look, he added as if the idea had just struck his mind, “Maybe you should use the time until my return to work on your manners.” He smirked and obviously satisfied with coming up with such a good parting shot he quickly vanished into the vault’s shadows. Seconds later a door was slammed shut, indicating that finally Steel and Silver were alone.

***

“You’re such a charmer, Steel.”

It wasn’t that provocative a comment, nothing Steel wouldn’t have expected from Silver under any other circumstances, but considering everything that had happened to him since his arrival here, he wasn’t at his best. He decided that enough was enough. Reaching up with both his hands, he grabbed Silver, ignoring the frantic scrabbling of small hands as well as the alarmed squeal, Steel dragged him down from his shoulder, turning and holding Silver tightly until he could take a good look at the shape Silver had taken on in his obvious attempt of posing as Steel’s dæmon.

He had become a four-legged animal, slender framed and with long extremities that ended in equally slender hands and feet that were right now flailing about in a futile attempt to gain some purchase against Steel’s unrelenting grip.

“Stop it,” Steel said sharply and he noticed with considerable satisfaction that Silver immediately grew still.

Silver was completely covered in soft and very dense fur that was grey on his back and white on the chest, as well as his throat, cheeks, and ears while the sleek muzzle showed a dark grey. Among the traits that caught Steel’s attention the most were the eyes and the facial colouring. While the eyes glowed in an intense amber-yellow, they were also encompassed by black triangular patches, giving the dæmon’s face quite a mischievous expression. Even more remarkable was the long and bushy tail that was ringed in black and white over its entire length. While it hung down limply at the moment, it must have been what had coiled around Steel’s throat earlier.

“You look ridiculous,” he said with a slight smirk.

It caused Silver to struggle again. “If you would let me down, Steel, I’d be more than happy to return to a more dignified form,” he said huffily.

“No, I don’t think you should,” Steel answered. His mind was already putting together more of the facts concerning their current situation. He paused, dreading his next words. “In fact, it was rather clever of you to pose as a dæmon.” He wasn’t surprised when immediately after he had said that, all of Silver’s struggling abruptly stopped again.

“Really? Well, I thought so myself, if you must know, but it’s nice to be appreciated—” Silver answered, and then added meaningfully, “—for a change.”

Steel was certain he would never hear the end of this, but he had no alternative than to continue. “Yes, fine, but let’s focus on more important matters, shall we? For one, I don’t believe it to be wise if you gave up on posing as a dæmon just yet,” he said, leaning slightly forward and lowering his voice at his last words. They appeared to be alone at the moment, but there wasn’t any harm in being cautious.

“Why?”

“Because, as you’ve undoubtedly guessed already, I seem to have lost most if not all of my abilities. I can’t get us out of this cage, Silver. After your arrival I was able to hear your thoughts, but you couldn’t hear mine. I find that very disturbing and I think that for now it would be best to keep you hidden. As a dæmon, you’re more likely to be ignored.” Steel sighed in frustration, and then took a look around his cage. It was just big enough for a man to stand in, but otherwise completely bare. While he normally scoffed at Silver’s or even Sapphire’s occasional indulgence in any form of unnecessary convenience, he would’ve given much for at least a chair. Standing here with a dangling Silver in his hands was highly impractical, and having a private conversation with him like this even more so.

Carefully he lowered himself to the floor, leaning against the row of bars at his back. He hadn’t known what to expect, but when he let go of Silver he was more than a little startled when his dæmon decided to make himself comfortable in Steel’s lap. It seemed highly inappropriate. _One of these days_ , Steel thought, but only said, “Silver, don’t overdo it,” instead of the much harsher rebuke that was on his mind.

“It’s cold in here,” Silver replied, his voice taking on a surprisingly whiney pitch. Before Steel could call him on it, however, Silver continued, and now his voice only held honest concern, “Like this we can speak more quietly. That is one of your priorities, isn’t it, Steel? Discretion?” Silver gave him a searching look out of yellow eyes. “Now, tell me why you think I should rather stay in this form instead of any other.”

“Have you tried to leave, Silver? I mean not this cage or this building, but to leave completely?” Steel asked in return.

“I can’t. I don’t know why, but I can’t,” Silver answered. “Something happened after we separated, something I’ve never felt before.”

Steel had been afraid of that answer. It confirmed some of his worst fears. “Do you know what it was? What it did to you?” he asked.

Silver was silent for a moment. He appeared to be searching for words. Finally he said, “Not precisely I’m afraid, but it was the strangest sensation, Steel. It felt as if something or, more precisely, some _one_ was walking right through me, leaving me hollow, as if its passage had taken something away from me. Haven’t you felt the same?”

_No_ , Steel thought, _I haven’t felt anything like that_. In fact he couldn’t remember feeling anything out of the ordinary at all. First he had been in the college’s library, and then he had been here. There was no in-between. Dropping his gaze from the shadows he had been watching, he stared down at Silver, simply shaking his head in lieu of an answer. Looking at him, he noticed something that made him smile and for a moment the sight made him forget about the direness of their situation. Silver was grooming his tail, his agile fingers quickly moving through his fur. _He always has trouble keeping his hands still,_ Steel thought, _and obviously this new form doesn’t present any exception to that rule_.

“Tell me Silver, how did you come up with the idea of posing as my dæmon? What kind of animal are you? And why did you choose this one?” Steel asked. To his surprise it took Silver a long time to answer.

“I have the shape of a lemur, a ring-tailed one to be precise,” he finally said in a strangely subdued voice. Suddenly there was an agitated quality in the way his hands were now moving over his tail as they flicked over it again and again. Steel thought he sounded slightly embarrassed.

Silver continued, “As to me choosing this particular form, I haven’t exactly _chosen_ it, I’m afraid.” His small head turned around and again Steel found himself under the intent scrutiny of a solemn, yellow gaze. “I said I felt hollow after that someone, or whatever it was, had passed through me earlier. Well, it also left me behind in this form,” Silver concluded, his hands stilling at his last words.

It took Steel a moment to comprehend all the possible ramifications of this last piece of information. He had assumed that Silver had acted out of his own volition, but apparently his colleague had been much more a victim of circumstance just as Steel had been.

“Then why do you think you can change back?” he asked. When he saw Silver starting to fiddle with his tail again, he was sure he could guess the answer.

“Admittedly, I haven’t confirmed it yet, but really, Steel, I can’t see why I shouldn’t be able to—” Silver said, his voice faltering abruptly, as if an idea, or maybe a suspicion, had suddenly struck his mind. He jumped off Steel’s lap. For a moment he stood almost motionless, his tail raised straight up as if to signal his determination.

Steel watched him silently, waiting for Silver to change shape, but nothing happened. The longer he waited, the more it became clear that his colleague was unable to revert to the human form he normally used while on assignments. “So, you can’t change back,” Steel said when the silence became oppressive.

“No, obviously not,” Silver answered, his own disappointment clearly visible in his new and, as it now appeared, unfortunately permanent, body’s language. He had lowered his head while his tail was drooping dejectedly. Slowly, he clambered onto Steel’s lap again, this time causing no more than a raised eyebrow from Steel.

Silver simply remained sitting there for a while, staring at him, until it finally broke out of him, “Steel, how are we ever going to get out of this?”

Steel had no idea either, but naturally he couldn’t allow himself to show the same kind of despair his accompanying specialist had just displayed. “To be honest, I don’t know Silver, but between the two of us, I’m sure we’ll find a way.”


	3. Silver

Silver was painfully aware how despondent he had sounded. He had asked Steel if he had any idea how they would get out of here. It was embarrassing. It had felt downright shocking to hear the same sense of dejection in Steel’s answer, even if he had tried to hide the fact. It was so unlike the Steel that Silver knew, his almost instinctive reaction had been to look for a way to raise both their spirits, some flippant remark or witty comment. Unfortunately nothing had come to mind.

Silver was still trying to come up with something, when Lord Asriel returned. Just like the human had done before, he slowly walked up to their cage until he stood directly in front of it, staring down at both Steel and Silver, his dark eyes quickly flicking back and forth between the two, as if he still wasn’t quite sure if he should believe his own eyes.

For a long time Steel didn’t move, but remained sitting on the ground, obviously not willing to do more than return the human’s silent gaze with one of his own. It was so typically Steel, Silver thought, pure stubbornness and pride all rolled in one and topped off with an all-pervading defiance.

Briefly Silver considered breaking up their staring contest. Under different circumstances he probably wouldn’t have had the patience to simply wait and watch until this battle of wills was decided. He wouldn’t have cared much about Steel’s intentions, and he wouldn’t have cared less about the human’s. Now, however, he understood that his role as a dæmon forced him into a much more restrained behaviour. He couldn’t just talk to Lord Asriel. It would be improper for a dæmon to speak to someone who hadn’t been formally introduced to him.

So the staring contest continued, until Steel finally moved to get up. _Most likely, he’s simply bored_ , Silver thought. He was just about to get off of Steel, when he found himself picked up instead and, with only the slightest amount of jumbling, firmly placed back on Steel’s shoulder before Steel rose to his feet.

This Silver hadn’t expected. Admittedly, Steel’s shoulder and neck were a vantage point far more to Silver’s liking than the ground where he would have been practically at eye level with Lord Asriel’s dæmon. The way that dæmon had been ogling Silver since his speedy arrival a while ago had been very disconcerting. There was a silent awareness and an almost hungry intensity to the other dæmon’s gaze that caused involuntary shivers to run through Silver’s body. No, it felt far better to reside relatively high-up, even if Steel’s shoulder wasn’t the most comfortable place he could think of.

Lord Asriel did comment on their quick manoeuvrings with nothing more but a single raised eyebrow and a quirk to one corner of his mouth. He waited until Steel finally stood, then said, “I expect that by now you’ve had enough time to think about your situation.” He paused, as if he expected some kind of acknowledgement from Steel.

“What do you want?” Steel asked instead.

 _Straight to the point and always aiming to achieve the maximum amount of brusqueness_ , Silver thought to himself. Regardless of the misery of their situation he couldn’t help but feel amused by his colleague’s behaviour.

Lord Asriel on the other hand seemed anything but, as anger played over his features, giving him a much gloomier look than before. “Fine, if that’s how you want to play this, I can certainly do without the niceties.” He drew a deep breath before he continued, “You asked me what I expect from you. I want to understand what you are. Since the first time you’ve come to our universe, I’ve been observing you. You seem to be able to cross between worlds with such an ease, while everyone else is trapped in their own. Why is that? What powers do you possess that enable you to do this? You call yourself elementals. What does that mean? Do you consider yourself as philosophical beings? I have so many questions, and I want answers.”

He had spoken with an ever increasing pace that clearly indicated how very much the subject of his speech was agitating him. His breathing had quickened and a slight flush had started to colour his cheeks. Silver had listened with growing worry and the look of open hunger he now saw in Lord Asriel’s eyes, a hunger that was not unlike the one the human’s dæmon had directed at Silver earlier on, was probably the most unsettling aspect of the whole monologue. Silver leaned closer to Steel’s ear. He wanted to give him a warning, but he was too slow.

“Why didn’t you just ask instead of subjecting us to this charade?” Steel said, his hand slapping against the cage bars, showing his discontentment with their current surroundings.

The question had an unexpectedly strong effect on Lord Asriel. He grew very calm and for a moment he appeared to be actually speechless. Then his eyes narrowed as his right hand came up, his fingers closing around one of the cage’s cross-bars that ran all around the structure at shoulder height.

“Tell me,” he said, “What’s your name?”

“I don’t see how that is relevant—” Steel began, only to be interrupted immediately.

“Humour me!” Lord Asriel all but snarled.

“I am Steel,” the answer came almost diffidently now.

“Do you think I’m a fool, Steel?” Lord Asriel asked, continuing before Steel had a chance to answer. “Of course I have asked! I have, indeed, had quite a few talks with one or two others of your kind — oh, such arrogance. Again and again they eluded my questions, alternately laughed and scoffed at me, or outright shunned me!”

Silver watched Lord Asriel with growing alarm. Apparently the man was talking himself more and more into a rage. It was an impressive sight and if the growing tenseness of Steel’s shoulders was any indicator, Silver could easily guess that his colleague was sharing his worries where such an outbreak might lead to next.

Then, suddenly, the human stopped as if he had realised how much he had lost control. Seemingly intent to rein himself in, he took a deep breath and continued in a much calmer voice, “So, you see now why I had to come up with a plan to lure you here and to capture you,” he said.

“ _You_ created the time-break?” Just like that Steel’s usual sharpness was back, brought forth at the suggestion that someone might have been foolish enough to actually create something as dangerous and uncontrollable as an irregularity.

Lord Asriel’s answering smile looked almost coy. “A time-break?” He cocked his head to the side and letting go of the cage’s cross-bar he had gripped so tightly a short time ago, he now crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Oh, yes, a time-break, that’s how it undoubtedly must have appeared to you. That was its purpose after all, and look how perfectly it worked in bringing you to me.”

“A trap then, but obviously not well thought out,” Steel said, his voice as condescending as Silver had ever heard it. Steel shifted and crossed his own arms, mirroring Lord Asriel’s posture to a tee.

“Really? What makes you think that?” the human asked. Different expressions warred on his face, open curiosity as well as disbelief.

Steel sighed and even though Silver couldn’t see it from his vantage point on Steel’s shoulder, he would have sworn there was an accompanying eye-roll to the sigh. “It really should be evident,” Steel said. “You might’ve been able to lure me here, but in order to capture me you obviously had to _do_ something to me. At a guess I’d say you have turned me into a human. At the very least you’ve facilitated changes to a considerable degree. So, whatever experimentation you’re planning, its results must invariably be faulty.” He paused, then added in a mocking tone of voice, “Apart from that you can’t really believe that keeping me here as a prisoner will make me more agreeable to answering any of your questions.”

Silver was rather impressed by Steel’s clever repartee, although the mere mention of Steel having been turned into a human had greatly worried him for a second. Most probably though Steel would over-exaggerate his assumptions of what Lord Asriel might have done. Steel had always been a very strict adherer of never giving away any information unless it absolutely couldn’t be helped.

Lord Asriel had listened to Steel’s words with a mixture of amusement and impatience. Now, he said, “A human? Oh, no, don’t worry, Steel. Turning you into a human has never been my intention, and as to my questions—” He gave Steel a scrutinising gaze, letting his words hang in the ensuing silence. “You will answer them, of that you can be certain.”

Again a knocking at the vault’s far side door interrupted them. Lord Asriel jerked around, then gave Steel an angry look over his shoulder before he strode away, leaving Silver and Steel without so much as a word.

As soon as the human was safely out of earshot range, Silver took the opportunity to voice at least some of the concerns he would have liked to tell Steel earlier. “Are you sure that antagonizing him is the best strategy? I mean, even if he hasn’t turned you into a human, a fact that at least I am quite grateful for, he has done _something_ to you and me that has left us at a definite disadvantage for the moment.”

He was about to continue when a tersely uttered “Quiet” from Steel stopped him in his tracks. For a second he was considering how to respond to yet another display of Steel’s trademark rudeness, when he noticed the voices coming from the other side of the vault. Steel was trying to overhear what was spoken there, he realised. Half hidden behind Lord Asriel, the shadow of a man could be seen in the diffusely lit open doorway. It seemed as if the two men were arguing. Silver strained to hear at least snatches of their conversation, but all he could make out were single phrases like ‘elementals’ and ‘angels’ and ‘transfiguration’ before the conversation abruptly came to an end.

The door was shut and once again Lord Asriel came back to them. Something in that latest exchange must have worried him, because his brows were deeply furrowed when he finally stopped in front of their cage. Nonetheless he picked up on their conversation as if the interruption had never occurred. “Oh yes, Steel, I will have my answers. One way or the other, I will have them. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

To Silver’s surprise, Steel actually answered, even if it was more of a terse mutter than a real answer.

It seemed enough to satisfy Lord Asriel. “Good. We’ll begin tomorrow morning.” With a last sharp glance at Silver he turned and started walking away towards the vault’s entrance.

Silver couldn’t believe it. Was that human really going to leave them here like that?

Obviously the same thought must have crossed Steel’s mind. Raising his voice, he asked incredulously, “Aren’t you going to let us out of here?” He took a quick step forward, his hands both gripping a cage-bar in front of him. The movement almost made Silver lose his balance, unexpected as it was.

Lord Asriel turned around again. “Us?” he echoed, a surprised expression on his face. “Ah, you mean you and your dæmon.” He gave Silver another long and calculating look that did nothing to hide his still lingering disbelief about the unexpected appearance of an elemental’s dæmon. “No, getting out of this cage is something you’ll have to work for,” he said with a smirk and, with that said, he made his way to the door and left them alone.


	4. Interlude

It had been a long time since he had last been here.

He had followed the human’s call. What was his name? Ah, yes, Lord Asriel. He had followed Lord Asriel’s call. He had come to this place of learning and study.

The human had asked for his help. He had talked for a long time, and his words had painted such a bright picture right in front of their eyes, a picture of a better future.

He had listened to Lord Asriel’s words and he had realised that he wanted to be a part of that future, a future that promised a freedom he had never known. He would have done almost everything to see it become a reality.

What Lord Asriel had asked of him hadn’t sounded too difficult to achieve, even though it had been an unusual request. It had felt slightly scandalous to him, though he couldn’t tell what exactly it was that had caused that kind of reaction in him.

He had voiced a few careful questions, wanting to make sure he understood his task. Lord Asriel’s answers had been both patient and logical.

In the end there really hadn’t been another option than to do as he had been asked.


	5. Steel

Under normal circumstances a night spent in waiting wouldn’t have posed any real hardship for Steel. He was used to spending long stretches of time doing nothing but waiting for something to happen. This was especially true during assignments. His present circumstances, however, were anything but normal. Their current assignment had turned out to be a ruse, a trick invented for the sole purpose of trapping them here, of trapping _him_ here.

Somehow he had been transformed. Lord Asriel had claimed that the changes had been only designed to trap Steel and to keep him from escaping. He had thoroughly denied Steel’s suggestion of having been turned into a human.

The whole experience had left Steel shaken to his core. He didn’t feel like himself. He was unable to determine what it was exactly that had been done to him, but whatever it was it also hindered him from uncovering the exact extent of the manipulation. He had tried to enlist Silver’s help for that purpose only to discover that his colleague was far too agitated and unsettled by his very own predicament to be of any real use.

In the end they had settled back on the ground. They had sat down as they had before, with him leaning against the back of their cage and Silver resting in his lap and they had waited for Lord Asriel to return. They had spent the night in silence and Steel had tried his best not to think too much about anything, a task that had proved to be easier than he would have expected.

In retrospect that should have alarmed him far more than it did at the time, as it shed a grim light on the depth of the changes that had been done to him. He also should have been far more worried by the fact that at no point of their waiting had Silver shown any hint of his usual curiosity and restlessness. He had stayed with Steel and inside their cage the whole time, never once venturing outside to investigate the surrounding vault or any of the numerous shelves or strange contraptions that lined its walls.

***

The next morning came with Lord Asriel rushing into the vault, brimming with renewed energy, his dæmon close at his heels.

“Good morning,” he greeted Steel, giving him an amiable smile while he watched Steel scrambling to his feet and securing a once again very jittery Silver on his shoulder. For a moment Steel wondered if it wasn’t so much the presence of Lord Asriel, but of his dæmon that set Silver off like that. He would have to talk to Silver about it later he told himself. Right now he had to deal with the human standing in front of him.

“Good morning,” he answered Lord Asriel’s greeting in what he hoped was an agreeable enough tone of voice. Sometime during the night he had come to the conclusion that there might be some merit to Silver’s advice of not purposefully antagonizing the lord. Steel wasn’t sure how long he would be able to stick to his resolve, but he had every intention to try his best. At least it couldn’t hurt, could it?

As if he wanted to reward Steel for reaching that conclusion, Lord Asriel gave him an affable smile before announcing, “I’m going to let you out of this cage now.” He paused for a moment. “I know I have said you would have to work for that privilege, but I’m in a good mood today, and I’ve decided to move proceedings up a bit.” The smile still firmly in place, he produced a large key out of one of his grey jacket’s pockets and with a flourish he unlocked the cage door, opening it wide.

Standing to the side, he swept his arm in a wide gesture of welcome. “If you would please come out?”

Reward or not, Steel found the sudden friendliness more than a little unnerving, but at this point there was really nothing he could do about it. He certainly couldn’t complain. Cautiously he stepped forward and out of the cage. At least that was his intention.

He hadn’t taken more than two steps when a hand at his left shoulder shoved hard, pushing him forward, causing him to stumble over a leg that was suddenly in his way. He lost his balance and fell to his knees, only dimly noticing the sounds of alarm Silver made as he half jumped, half fell from Steel’s shoulder.

The attack had come so unexpected that for a moment Steel simply kneeled there, slightly dazed, but even more shocked at the dull and unexpected ache he felt in his knees where they had hit the ground. That ache, however, became almost negligible when a far greater pain settled on his neck, causing him to freeze as he couldn’t determine the source for it.

A distressed wail, coming from Silver, gave him a good idea, though. Looking to the side he saw Lord Asriel’s dæmon, standing in a crouched position, its head slightly bowed and between its fangs a weakly struggling Silver. The snow-leopard had gripped him by the neck, pressing him to the ground and thus prevented him from any escape.

“Let him go!” Steel shouted, his hand involuntarily coming up to his own aching neck as he clumsily stumbled to his feet, almost falling down again in the process, and turned to face Lord Asriel.

His captor looked at him with a pleased expression. “So, it really _is_ your dæmon, and a male one at that, how interesting.” He watched Steel for a moment longer. He snapped his fingers and the painful pressure around Steel’s neck vanished instantly.

Even before Steel could turn around, he already felt Silver hastily climbing up his back, making soft keening sounds, while Silver’s voice ranted inside of Steel’s mind. _That treacherous bastard! To trick us like that. I’d really like to do something very nasty to that cat of his. Have you seen those teeth, Steel? Oh, what I would give to get mine into that mangy fur of hers._

Steel listened to him with only half an ear. His own thoughts were in an uproar. How could this have happened? What did it mean? He wanted to talk to Silver about it, but there wasn’t any time for it now.

“Yesterday you asked me a question. Do you remember what it was?” Lord Asriel asked.

Steel didn’t answer. He had a dawning suspicion where this was heading, but he had no intention of playing into Lord Asriel’s hands. He certainly didn’t care about any good intentions to play nice with the human he might have had only moments ago.

Lord Asriel glared at him menacingly. “You asked, why you should cooperate with me. Today I’d like to give you some very good reasons. First of all, I’ve no intention of causing you any permanent harm. I’m a scholar and an explorer, but above all I’m a reasonable man. I want answers, but not at the price of a vendetta over a killed elemental. That is if you even _can_ be killed, and assuming that your kind would want to exact any form of vengeance. I don’t know either, but I prefer to err on the side of caution.

“To put it simply, the better you oblige me, the sooner you will be free again and returned to your natural faculties. Cooperation is the only way for you to regain both your freedom and your powers. And should you wonder, you’ve just experienced one of the consequences that a lack of cooperation might entail,” the lord said, letting the threat his words held work its way through the following silence. “Of course, such rough treatment would always be a matter of last resort, but make no mistake I wouldn’t hesitate to apply them if I deemed it necessary.”

Steel stared at the man, then at the man’s dæmon. He had expected to hear some kind of threat directed against himself. After all, it wasn’t unusual for humans to resort to physical violence at one point or another, but somehow he had assumed that Silver in his dæmon form would be safe. He had counted on the high prestige of dæmons in this world, only to learn now that he obviously had miscalculated. If anything Silver’s posing as a dæmon might well be much more of a liability than an advantage.

Eyeing the human warily Steel thought that there wasn’t anything he wanted to say in response to this threat. He wordlessly crossed his arms and waited.

Lord Asriel nodded in return, as if Steel’s silence was just the kind of affirmation he had expected. He turned and started walking towards the vault’s far side door, not even checking if Steel was following him or not. Changing the subject he said, “I expect you’ve wondered where you are. Right now we are under the Palmerian Tower. It is one of the oldest structures of Jordan College and incidentally my place of residence whenever I find the time to be here.”

Steel realised that Lord Asriel seemed to have no qualms to lecture Steel on the architectural values of his current prison while he took Steel to some unknown other place. He sighed and after a quick look at Silver he followed the human to the door.

When they reached the vault’s entrance, Lord Asriel pushed the door open, revealing a spiralling staircase that led them upwards over three storeys, until the stairs ended at a short landing and another door.

Lord Asriel again opened it and with an impatient hand wave he ushered Steel to follow him in as he vanished into the adjoining room.

***

What lay behind the door turned out to be a large study. The room itself had a rotund shape, with large parts of its walls covered by bookshelves. Four big windows let in enough light to give the room an airy atmosphere, especially in contrast to the vault lying three storeys beneath them. An immense writing-desk, as well as three armchairs placed around a round tea table, dominated the centre of the room and gave it a comfortable look that was further enhanced by rich carpets, showing patterns of dark red and brown covering the floor’s parquetry. Another iron cast spiral staircase, set to one side of the room apparently led up to an upper floor, possibly a bedroom, Steel guessed. In all the study breathed an air of comfort and confidence, not unlike its owner. It found its perfect expression in the smells present. The slightly earthy and dusty aroma of hundreds of books combined with the darker scents of wood and leather.

“Have a seat,” Lord Asriel told him, his tone implying that he was once more content to treat Steel more like a guest than the prisoner he was. Some part of Steel would have preferred the open threats. They had certainly felt more honest to him, even though the human’s friendlier attitude didn’t feel forced or like a façade, it made him wary.

He watched Lord Asriel closely who now stood in front of one of the room’s sideboards and was fiddling with a samovar standing there. Determining that his captor was presently occupied and didn’t need his immediate attention, Steel decided to find out a bit more about his surroundings. It seemed prudent to learn as much as he could about this human and what better way than to study the numerous books filling the bookshelves along the room’s walls. _Normally I would set Sapphire or Silver to that task,_ he thought with slight pang of regret. It couldn’t be helped. Sapphire wasn’t here and Silver… Silver wasn’t exactly himself.

He gave his dæmon a scrutinising glance. Walking to the other side of the room, he made certain to put a comfortable distance between them and Lord Asriel. “Silver?” he inquired softly. The long silence of his colleague was truly worrying. Since his tirade about the rough treatment he had been subjected to by Lord Asriel’s dæmon, Silver hadn’t said another word, neither aloud or in Steel’s mind. Granted it was a sensible strategy to keep their exchanges as much to themselves as possible, but this latest silence seemed so very much unlike Silver.

“Yes?” Silver asked back.

“You’re very quiet.”

The comment earned him a silent and low snicker from Silver that echoed in Steel’s mind. _I believe that’s the first time you’re complaining about_ that _, Steel. What do you want me to say? Be careful? Please try_ not _to antagonize this man more than necessary? I believe you understand why that’s important well enough on your own. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but I also was under the impression that you wouldn’t want a running commentary by me. Not that I couldn’t provide you with one._

Silver’s comments were half anxious, half amused and all the way mocking. They also did a lot to lessen Steel’s worries. Nonetheless something seemed not quite right with Silver. He seemed to be too passive, relying too much on Steel and his ability to get them out of this situation one way or the other. Normally he was far less restrained about nagging Steel with comments and complaints about any given situation. He considered confronting Silver about it but then decided against it. It would be a topic far better suited to discuss when they were alone again, and when there was no danger of interruptions. So instead he only said, “No, I agree. A running commentary would be too much. I wouldn’t mind the occasional comment, though.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Silver answered, speaking aloud now. “By the way, our jailer is watching us, Steel. I think it would be best if you see to him.”

Steel turned around and indeed found himself under intense scrutiny.

“Sit,” Lord Asriel repeated. This time it sounded much more like a command than an invitation.

Steel did as he was told. He let Silver climb down from his shoulder, so that he could sit on one of the chair’s armrests.

“Tea?” Lord Asriel inquired, giving Steel a look over his shoulder as he was filling a cup with steaming hot water from the samovar’s tap. At Steel’s headshake, he added, “No, I hadn’t expected you would. That’s one of the few things I know about your kind. Even while you’re looking like a normal human being, you don’t need to sleep, or eat, or drink. While you’re capable of doing these things, you rarely choose to indulge in them.” With his tea-cup in hand he came over to the table and sat down opposite from Steel. “I wonder why that is?” he said.

“Is this question already part of your interrogation? Steel asked back.

“What do you think?” Lord Asriel replied cryptically.

Steel sighed. They hadn’t even started and he was already dreading the prospect of engaging in this tiresome back and forth between them. There seemed to be no way out, however. Of course, that didn’t mean he had to succumb to it without so much as a token of a struggle. Furthermore he had no intention of simply trusting this human on his mere word that he would set Steel and his dæmon free once they had satisfied Lord Asriel’s curiosity.

“Well?” Lord Asriel asked again.

“What guarantee can you give me?” Steel asked back.

“Guarantee?”

“Yes, a guarantee that you will actually do as you’ve promised, that you will set us free once your questions have been answered,” Steel elaborated. “What will stop you from simply disposing of us? What will stop you from ever and ever coming up with new questions, keeping us here indefinitely? Do you really believe that I’m going to trust you in good faith? So far your actions haven’t shed the best light on your credibility.”

 _Steel!_ Silver practically hissed at him.

Reluctantly Steel reined himself in. Lord Asriel was giving him a very curious look. He didn’t look particularly antagonized, regardless what Silver might fear. On the contrary there was a look of grudging respect on the human’s face.

“What do you expect? A letter of intent? And what good would that do?” Lord Asriel asked, then shook his head. “No, you will have to trust me, regardless if you like it or not.” He took a sip of his tea, giving Steel a calculating look.

There lay truth in his words. Steel was aware of it, but he wasn’t prepared to give in so easily. “We will agree on a time-limit then. Three days, and however much you have learned until then, you will let us go.”

For a second Lord Asriel simply stared at him, his mouth hanging slightly agape. “You’re worse than a fishwife straight out from Billingsgate!” he exclaimed at last. “Oh very well, three days it is then. But make no mistake, if you continue to be difficult — that is if you try to evade my questions or even sabotage my experiments — I will add more time. Let’s see, a day for each stolen hour. Yes, that sounds fair, I believe.”

Steel was surprised at Lord Asriel’s willingness to agree to any set of terms. It must have showed on his face, because, putting down his cup the human suddenly leaned forward, fixing Steel with an intense stare.

“Just don’t forget who’s in charge here,” Lord Asriel said, his tone low and dangerous. “I might be willing to treat you fairly, but should you attempt any trickery I will revoke any bargain we’ve settled on. Our arrangement will be null and void. Should that happen, don’t expect any mercy.”

There it was again, the far more brutish side of this man. Steel had wondered where it had gone, had suspected it to be only hidden. Now, the veil had been pulled away. Giving Lord Asriel a hard look he nodded in agreement.


	6. Silver

Something was fundamentally wrong. All during the day Silver had tried to divide his attention between everything that was being said by Steel or Lord Asriel and trying to understand what had happened to him and Steel.

The morning’s incident with Lord Asriel’s dæmon had left him deeply shaken. It wasn’t so much the experience itself, the feeling of sharp teeth closing around his neck, the accompanying pain and the threat of even more physical violence; with those he had dealt before, albeit they weren’t regular risks a specialist faced on assignments. No, what had stunned him had been how his own predicament had been instantly transmitted to Steel. That most definitely _shouldn’t_ have happened. Yet, the shocked look on Steel’s face had made it abundantly clear that Steel had sensed his pain and Lord Asriel’s comment about Silver really being Steel’s dæmon had further confirmed his fears.

Whatever had been done to them, it must have caused some profound changes, even though Lord Asriel claimed that not to be true. To be fair, Lord Asriel seemed oblivious to Silver’s true nature, but that made the changes only more disturbing.

They had spent most of the day in the tower’s study-room. Steel and Lord Asriel had talked and debated and argued until around midday the Master of Jordan College, along with his dæmon, a large black raven, had come to the tower, interrupting them in their conversation.

Lord Asriel had invited him to stay for a while. Apparently he was not beyond the need to brag about his achievement of capturing an elemental, and the master was obviously aware of Lord Asriel’s scheme or probably even directly involved. Silver couldn’t tell for sure. To his astonishment the master had treated Steel with considerable hostility while he reacted to Steel’s dæmon with open fascination.

“And you say, the dæmon appeared later, my Lord?” he had asked, leaning forward in his armchair as if he thought closer proximity would give him better insight into this peculiar dæmon’s nature.

Silver had responded by moving from one armrest of the chair Steel had been sitting in to the other, a move that allowed him to stay as far away from both humans as well as their dæmons. Steel had reached out to him and had begun to slowly run his fingers through Silver’s fur. The gesture had been mostly unaware, one look at Steel’s absentminded expression had confirmed that to Silver, but it had been reassuring nonetheless.

“I clearly remember that his kind,” the master had given Steel a thoughtful look at that, “has always claimed not to possess dæmons. The official report of the Magisterium is very explicit about that matter as well.”

Lord Asriel had nodded sharply, impatiently, and the condescending frown on his face made it clear how unnecessary he considered the master’s cautious objection. “I’m aware of that. So, are you absolutely sure that you didn’t see his dæmon when the two of you met in the library?” he asked back.

“I most certainly didn’t!” The master replied categorically. Then he frowned. “Though, come to think of it, that might have been because of the way he treated me. I might not have given my surroundings the necessary attention. Maybe his dæmon was hidden by one of the shelves?” He had seemed to consider his own words, then he had suddenly turned towards Steel. “That behaviour was completely unacceptable by the way,” he had said vehemently.

Steel had reacted with nothing more than a roll of his eyes. It had made Silver wonder exactly what had happened between the two of them. At the master’s next question, however, any speculations about that had become insignificant.

“My Lord, have you discussed the phenomena, yet?” the master had asked, his eyes quickly wandering back and forth between Lord Asriel and Steel. His face had taken on a furtive look, as if he hadn’t wanted to ask the question, but had felt compelled to do so regardless.

“Not now!” Lord Asriel had exclaimed harshly, his hand making a cutting motion, showing quite clearly how unwelcome the inquiry was.

Silver had perked up at the reaction, and naturally Steel had, too.

“Phenomena?” Steel had asked, not even trying to hide his sudden interest at this turn in their conversation.

Lord Asriel had reacted even more violently to his question. “It’s nothing to concern you,” he had stated harshly.

The master, however, had seemed of a different mind. “Your arrival coincided with the appearance of some very strange phenomena or, more precisely, some strange sightings. I was wondering if there might be any correlation,” he had told Steel, dropping some of his former hostility and giving Steel a curious look.

“Master,” Lord Asriel had cut in. “I don’t think it’s wise discussing such matters here. I assure you, I’m giving them due attention. Of one thing I’m absolutely certain. There is no possible way that both events could be linked.” His words had taken on such a threatening undertone by then, that the master had hastily acquiesced and had changed the subject.

Shortly thereafter Lord Asriel had ushered the master out of the room, claiming he and his _guest_ had business elsewhere they needed to attend to, though it had been obvious to everyone that he simply wanted to get rid of the old man.

The rest of the day had passed with more talks between Lord Asriel and Steel, until the former had declared that for today they would call it an end. He had led them back down to the vault and within minutes Silver and Steel found themselves once again locked in their cage.

***

“This day has been an utter waste,” Steel said, breathing out harshly as he sat down on the cage’s floor.

He had a disgruntled look on his face and Silver couldn’t blame him for it. Dealing with Lord Asriel had been a difficult task. It was no wonder that Steel’s nerves were a bit frayed around the edges, his patience worn thin by one question after the other shot at him.

“I can’t speak for you, of course, but I’m mostly confused — confused and worried,” said Silver. He clambered into Steel’s lap and looked up at him. “Tell me, Steel. What do you make of all of this? Do you have any explanation for what happened?”

“What? Oh, I don’t know and right now, I really don’t care either,” Steel answered, appearing strangely unconcerned.

His reply was so unexpected, so startling that Silver’s first intuitive reaction was the urge to just bite Steel, choosing a hand or a finger, to shake him out of his lethargy. It was pure instinct and Silver immediately reined himself in, yet the impulse was there. That was even more disconcerting than Steel’s uncharacteristic lack of concern, because biting someone, was most definitely no way for an element to behave, even if that someone was Steel, a fact that always needed to be taken into account as a mitigating factor in Silver’s opinion.

Settling on an exasperated look instead, Silver said, “I mean all of this? Us? This place?” He paused, only then noticing how tired Steel looked. Maybe Silver had misinterpreted? Maybe he had mistaken pure exhaustion for a lack of concern. He decided to address what was bothering him the most. “Why don’t we start with this morning, Steel? What happened there, that was completely impossible! I have thought about it the whole day, and yet I have no idea how to explain it. It’s one thing to _appear_ as a dæmon, but it’s something else entirely to exhibit a dæmon’s characteristics,” he said.

“Calm down, Silver,” Steel replied. “I admit, at first I was worried too, but whatever has happened to us, it’s reversible. Lord Asriel was absolutely certain about _that_ at least. Once we’ve discovered how he did this to us, we can reverse the process ourselves.”

“Yes, nothing easier than that,” Silver murmured. To his disappointment he sounded far less mocking than he had aimed for and a lot more petulant instead. It was so like Steel to make this appear easy when the chances of them actually achieving it were so little. He huffed and looked down.

Again Steel surprised him by running his hand through the fur of Silver’s back. Admittedly the strokes felt rather nice. Against his will, Silver felt himself relax. It was disconcerting, that Steel was taking this kind of liberty and obviously thought nothing of it, but right now telling Steel to stop was simply out of the question. That was another thing, Silver thought. Steel’s behaviour towards him was obviously changing, too. Silver wasn’t sure if it was the changes in Steel that were responsible for that or the changes in himself. Most likely it was a combination of both.

He considered if he should broach the subject with Steel, but he felt oddly reluctant about it. He was sure that such a discussion would involve all kinds of awkwardness during and afterwards. Also, there wasn’t much to be gained in making Steel uncomfortable. Considering Steel’s behaviour lately, Silver was sure that discomfort would be the most likely of Steel’s reactions. At last there was a small part of Silver that enjoyed those changes in Steel, but _that_ was something he would never admit to anyone. It was something that he was barely willing to admit to himself. It really wasn’t important, so why mention it?

“Where do we start?” he asked, deciding on a pragmatic approach. In the past that had always produced the best results when dealing with Steel.

Before Steel could answer, however, there was the soft creaking sound of an opening door. Half turning in Steel’s lap, Silver saw a shimmer of dim light at the far side of the vault, before the door was carefully closed. Someone had entered the vault. He couldn’t make out who it was, but he could hear the sound of soft footsteps accompanied by the beating of wings. He tensed.

Exchanging a quick look with Steel, Silver clambered out of his lap and moved up the cage’s side, waiting for Steel to get up, too, so he could settle in his accustomed place on Steel’s shoulder. He was sure it wasn’t Lord Asriel who was slowly walking towards them. There was something oddly furtive about the approaching figure that didn’t fit with the lord’s usual demeanour. So who could it be?

Soon the mystery was solved when Silver could make out the deep voice of the master. “Yes, I’m aware that it’s risky, but I really don’t see any other option.” A pause followed during which a softer voice spoke, though its words weren’t discernible. “No, I won’t reconsider. You’ve seen yourself what is happening,” the master said again. It was obvious that he was talking to his dæmon, but about what Silver couldn’t guess.

At last the master reached their cage. Stopping in front of it, he stood silently for a while, as if he was unsure how to say what he had come to say, now that he actually was here. His dæmon sat quietly on his shoulder, a black shadow that was almost completely invisible in the darkness.

“Well? Are you going to let us out?” Steel finally asked.

 _Trust on Steel to immediately cut to the heart of the matter,_ Silver thought to himself, barely suppressing a chuckle.

The abruptness of the question obviously had startled the master. Pulling his dark robe closer around him he asked, “What makes you think that’s the reason why I came?”

Steel scoffed. “Obviously there are things happening outside, things for which you’d like to get our help,” he answered.

His words drew a puzzled frown from the master. “Us?” he asked. Then, as if he had only just made the connection, he quickly added. “Oh, you mean you and your dæmon.” He gave Silver a quick look. “Well, yes, I hope you can help.” He paused, giving first their cage and then the cage’s lock an uncertain glance. “Although I’m not sure if I brought the right tools to get you out,” he said, pulling out a medium sized bolt-cutter.

“No, I don’t think so,” Steel replied hesitantly.

They both eyed the massive padlock with doubt.

“I have a better idea. Let me try something,” Steel said, after a long moment spent with thoughtful stares had passed. “I might be able to open the cage myself.”

“Really,” the master answered, sounding unconvinced, the unspoken question of ‘then why haven’t you done so before?’ clearly audible in his voice.

“Yes, but you need to step back, and a good distance if you please. Otherwise I can’t guarantee your safety,” Steel answered. Pointing towards the far side of the vault, he added, “As far back as the door.”

The master gave him another dubious look, but with a sigh and a slight shrug, he did as he was told and retreated back towards the vault’s door.

Silver had followed the whole exchange with rising puzzlement. As soon as he deemed the master far enough away so he couldn’t overhear them, he asked, “What do you have in mind, Steel? I thought you said, you couldn’t bend the bars.”

“No, I can’t get us out. That’s not what I have in mind,” Steel answered. “However, _you_ can, Silver. You can open the lock; at least you should be able to. In fact I should have asked you to try it yesterday night, but you were far too befuddled then to be of any use.”

Silver huffed indignantly. He most certainly hadn’t been befuddled. If Steel had wanted him to try breaking them out, he could have simply asked. It seemed far more likely that Steel hadn’t thought of this option at all yesterday. Regardless, there was no use in getting into an argument over such a minor slight now. What bothered him far more than Steel’s words were his own doubts if he was capable of accomplishing what Steel was asking him to do.

“What if I can’t?” he asked. He reached out for the cage’s front bars, leaving Steel’s shoulder, so he could squeeze through them to get a better look at the padlock.

“Try.” Steel gave him an unwavering look.

Securing a safe grip with his feet and his left hand, Silver let his right one slowly glide over the padlock’s casing. He knew that under different circumstances, it wouldn’t take him more than a second to open it. Now, however, the circumstances were rather exceptional. He was a sodding lemur, not to speak of the fact that whatever had happened to him, it had transformed him at least partly into Steel’s dæmon. Even thinking about that was far too weird to fathom.

“Come on, Silver.” Steel’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

He was almost grateful for it, because considering the implications of turning into a dæmon — that way lay madness, of that he was sure. Letting his hand rest upon the keyhole, he concentrated hard. At first, nothing happened, but then something gave. It was with immensurable relief that he heard a series of soft clicking sounds until the locking bolt slid out of its hole.

He was startled when Steel’s large hands moved over his own. Fiddling with the padlock and pulling at the latch that secured the cage, Steel pushed the cage’s door open and got out. Once outside he turned around immediately, offering Silver his outstretched arm. “Well done,” he said.

Silver wanted to purr in response. Of course he didn’t, but the urge was undeniably there. He let himself be drawn onto Steel’s shoulder again.

Unfortunately the master’s advancing footsteps postponed any further exchange between them. He seemed to be far more agitated now than he had been before. “I’m impressed,” he said, sounding a bit breathless as if the excitement of this break-out was finally getting to him. “Lord Asriel told me that all your elemental powers would be curbed. Obviously he was wrong. But whatever the reason, I think we should hurry. I’d rather avoid an encounter with him now and he’s renowned for his light sleep and occasional bouts of insomnia.” Waving both his hands impatiently, he motioned for Steel to follow.


	7. Steel

Their walk over the college precinct was a dark and silent one. True to his word the master seemed to be in a hurry to reach wherever he was taking them. The college lay in almost complete darkness with only a sparse number of lamps lighting the central walkways between the buildings. Obviously intent on minimising the risk of discovery, the master was choosing a route that would keep them as far away from those walkways as possible.

Early on Steel had tried to question the old man about the destination but had been waved off with the casual remark he should just wait and see. While the lack of an explanation had annoyed him, he had let it pass at the time. Obviously they were heading for a place the master deemed safe. Steel only hoped it wouldn’t turn out to be another prison, but wherever they were heading, it couldn’t be worse than that infernal cage. He would try to be patient until he had learned more. Then he would be able to formulate a new plan on how to continue.

As he followed the master Steel was carefully studying their surroundings. So far he had no idea what kind of dangerous phenomena the master had been talking about earlier, but it couldn’t hurt to be observant. Right now any additional information could be useful. He reached up, giving his dæmon’s tail a sharp tug to get his attention.

It caused Silver to hiss at him sharply. W _hat is it?_ he inquired wordlessly.

“Keep your eyes open.”

 _I have, and just for your information, I have excellent night-vision. So far, however, I’ve seen nothing of interest,_ Silver replied flippantly, clearly annoyed.

Steel chose not to answer. He was satisfied to know that Silver was alert and by the way his small head turned every once in a while, revealing his luminous yellow eyes whenever his and Steel’s gazes met, it was clear that he was making sure that nothing unusual escaped his scrutiny.

It took them only a few minutes before the master led them towards one of the college’s largest central buildings. Once inside, he took them up to the third floor where he stopped in front of a large and ornate door that he unlocked with an equally large key.

Upon entering it became immediately clear that these were the master’s private rooms. The first one of them, the one they had entered now, was an enormous study with even more books, taking up every available space, than even Lord Asriel’s study had contained. There was a huge desk and behind it on the wall hung a whole row of official looking diplomas, adorned with large wax seals, all carefully framed and most likely stating all the titles and honours the study’s owner had earned over the years.

The master didn’t pause here. He led Steel through another door directly opposite to the one through which they had come in. The adjoining, second room turned out to be a living room that held, apart from a fireplace and a pair of armchairs in front of it, also a large dinner table. Here there were even more books and now they were kept company by a large number of artefacts and objects of art, carefully placed for maximum effect. Regardless of all the grandeur the room had a lived in feeling to it, suggesting that apart from being used for representative occasions it also served to satisfy the much more mundane creature comforts of its owner.

With a heavy sigh of relief the master let himself fall into one of the armchairs, his dæmon taking up a place on the high backrest behind him. “Please, have a seat,” the master said, looking up at Steel and waving his arm casually to direct his guest to the other one.

For a second Steel had a jarring sense of déjà vu. It had been very similar circumstances, in which he had sat down with Lord Asriel to a discussion that had been altogether uncomfortable and exhausting. The feeling passed quickly enough, however, as he reminded himself of the obvious differences. He might not have gained his freedom back, but at least he was out of that cage. He and Silver might still be trapped here in this world, but they had regained at least some control over what was happening to them.

He settled himself in the armchair the master had offered him, noticing that the old man was softly chuckling to himself. Steel had no idea what that strange behaviour might mean but he had more important things on his mind. Leaning back he reached up and behind his shoulder and gently pulled his dæmon onto his lap. Silver, too, had chosen the armchair’s backrest as his sitting place. It left Steel feeling uneasy without direct physical contact. Right now, he wanted to be absolutely sure where Silver was at any given moment. Even though everything appeared safe for the time being, he didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. At first Silver fidgeted a bit, but after a few seconds and some strategically applied strokes through his fur he acquiesced readily enough.

Steel was still considering how to begin the unavoidable negotiations, when the master, who was still chuckling quietly, beat him to it. “Oh my, it’s a long time since I’ve played a trick like this, and on Lord Asriel no less.” He chuckled a bit more. “His lordship will be furious tomorrow. I wish I could see his face when he discovers the open cage.”

Steel could imagine the picture rather vividly and without much effort. “How do you propose to stop him from simply barging in here and demanding my return?” he asked.

The master gave him a sly look out of half-lidded eyes. “Oh, don’t worry, he can’t. You see, his scheme to capture you has been completely unauthorised. Even I learned of it only by accident and I never approved of it. He might demand your return but he has no real leverage to use to that effect. No, quite the contrary in fact, there might be one or the other circumstance that should enable me to keep him in check if necessary. I _am_ after all the master of this college.”

“He certainly has leverage if he’s the only one to return me my powers, obviously,” Steel retorted drily. He felt it necessary to remind the master of that little, yet important detail.

“Hmm, I have at least some bits of information on that and I can guess even more.” The master smacked his lips in a fashion that sounded exquisitely rude. “You don’t think Lord Asriel has accomplished this by himself, do you?” He chuckled again. “Well, he hasn’t, and I’m confident that I can accomplish the same or, at the very least, convince Lord Asriel that it would be in his own best interest to reverse the process. As I said there are circumstances—” He paused, giving Steel another mischievous look, then continued where he had trailed off. “—circumstances you can’t possibly be aware of that will allow me to put considerable pressure on his lordship should it seem advantageous for me to do so.”

 _Here it comes_ , Steel thought. “Advantageous? I see. Name your price,” he said.

All of the sudden every hint of tiredness had vanished from the master as he sat up straight in his chair. “Oh please, this isn’t some sort of bargain. I’d prefer it if we could treat it more like a gentleman’s agreement,” he answered with a placatory smile. He yawned demonstratively. “But it’s late. Why don’t we postpone this discussion until tomorrow? I wouldn’t dare to presume about _your_ needs, but _I_ am an old man and I need my rest.” He didn’t wait for an answer, but rose from his chair, giving Steel an expectant look.

Steel would have liked to avoid another delay, but it seemed unavoidable. Pulling Silver into his arms, he rose and curtly nodded his assent.

***

As it turned out, the master’s suite also included a guest room and Steel found himself shepherded into it. He hadn’t taken more than a few steps into the room, when the door was closed at his back. He heard a murmured ‘good-night’, followed immediately afterwards by the sound of a key turning. Once again they were locked in.

 _Look, we’ve found ourselves a new cage_ , Silver remarked, his voice practically dripping with sarcasm.

“So, you _can_ speak,” Steel felt compelled to respond. It hadn’t gone without his notice that Silver had once again turned very quiet during the events of the night and the discussions with the master.

“Don’t mock me,” Silver replied aloud. He wriggled out of Steel’s grip, jumped down from his shoulder and started inspecting the room.

Steel followed his example. The room was rather small. It contained a double-bed, a wardrobe and the obligatory bookshelf, that was all. A small door led to an equally small lavatory.

Obviously Silver was in a more independent mood tonight. Instead of returning to Steel, he took up position on the bed’s footboard, where he sat, watching as Steel chose to do a more in-depth inspection of the room’s furnishings.

“I could open that lock within a second. I wonder if the old chap already has forgotten about the cage’s padlock,” Silver told him.

Steel made a non-committal sound. He had just discovered that their room’s window was barred by an, albeit decorative, grating. Opening the window, he leaned as far out as the grating allowed. Obviously all the windows had them, which was rather curious for windows on the third floor.

“Granted, this room is certainly better than that small cage,” Silver remarked, sounding rather prissy to Steel’s ears.

Foregoing even a nonverbal reply of Silver’s comment, he turned his attention to the wardrobe, but it contained nothing more than a few coat hangers, two sets of spare bedclothes as well as a few towels. He was just about to turn his attention to the bookshelf when his dæmon spoke up again.

“Tell me, Steel, did you believe the master when he claimed that Lord Asriel wouldn’t have any leverage to demand our return?” he asked.

Halfway through with his examination of the books, Steel paused for a moment. “He should know best. After all, he _is_ the Head of Jordan College,” he replied. He continued going through the second half of the books and then turned around. Walking over to the bed’s footboard, he held out his arms to Silver. He saw Silver hesitate, an almost negligible pause, but still worrisome in itself somehow, causing Steel to sigh in relief when he eventually found himself once again burdened with an armful of lemur. In a way this felt even more reassuring than seeing (and hearing) Silver acting like his normal chatty self.

Since the room didn’t have any chairs, he went to the bed’s side and letting his dæmon first climb down on it, he followed him suit, resting his back against the headboard, stretching out his legs. It was unfortunate that they would have to wait through another night. At least they would be able to do so a bit more comfortably than before.

He wasn’t really in the mood to talk at the moment and so he simply listened to some more of Silver’s chatter until his dæmon too fell silent and they rested in companionable silence. At one point, he moved a bit down, so that he could actually lie on his back. For some reason this second night of waiting seemed to be far more boring than their first one. The last thing he remembered was the curious sensation of falling.


	8. Silver

Silver came awake with a sudden jerk and a rush of panic. For a few heart-beats he flailed around, furiously blinking his eyes, trying to get his bearings before he realised that he must have fallen asleep. In itself that wasn’t particularly alarming. While he didn’t _need_ to sleep, even in his human form, he had occasionally indulged in it, just for the experience of it or, in one circumstance, to simply pass the time. _Why then have I woken up in such a panic?_ he wondered.

He looked around until his gaze fell on Steel’s prone form. He was still sleeping. The thought came and went like any other before. It took probably a second before his mind did a sharp double-take. Steel was _sleeping!_ Steel _never_ slept, and yet here he was, lying beside Silver, his eyes closed and so evidently asleep, there wasn’t any other explanation. He also appeared to be having a nightmare, which could explain Silver’s panic on waking up. Silver never had a nightmare himself or, come to think of it, a dream at all. He was a bit unclear about the precise mechanics, but there were waves of anxiety emanating from Steel that made any other conclusion highly unlikely.

“Steel,” he said, but didn’t get any reaction from his dreaming colleague. “Steel!” he said again, louder this time. When even this didn’t bring any reaction, he quickly leaned forward and delivered a firm bite to what was nearest to reach — which turned out to be an ear.

With a grunt, Steel jerked awake. “What?” he mumbled, staring blearily at Silver. Then his mind seemed to come fully awake. Hastily he pushed himself to his elbows. Sitting up, he swamped Silver with a whole barrage of questions. “What happened?” he asked, then, already jumping to conclusions, he added, “Who did this?” and “Why was I unconscious?”

When Silver didn’t immediately reply, not because he didn’t want to, but simply because it took him a moment to sort out his possible replies, he found himself rather unceremoniously grabbed and held up for closer inspection.

“Silver? Are you alright?” Steel inquired, now sounding even more worried.

This had definitely gone on long enough, Silver decided. With an emphatic wiggle he managed to free himself from Steel’s grasp. “Would you please calm down, Steel. Nothing happened to you. I’m fine, and you just feel asleep and apparently had a nightmare, so I woke you up,” he said, ticking off all of Steel’s questions in his mind.

At first his explanation was greeted by a look of total incomprehension. Silver wondered if the idea of having fallen asleep was too alien for Steel to grasp. He waited, hoping that Steel would eventually think the whole thing through and see that Silver was right.

“You bit me!” Steel exclaimed at last.

 _Yes, Steel, always great with evasive strategies, aren’t we?_ Silver thought to himself. Aloud he said, “I told you, Steel. You had a nightmare. I tried shouting at first, but when that didn’t work—” He shrugged. It was fascinating to see, how many of Steel’s thoughts could be so easily read just by watching the various expressions playing over his features. There was shock, closely followed by denial; then realization slowly dawned, appearing arm in arm with a large helping of embarrassment on the side, only to be replaced by another bout of denial.

Silver wondered if Steel’s face had always been so expressive and if he, Silver, simply hadn’t noticed it before, but he doubted it. No, it seemed likelier that this expressiveness was new, another side-effect of whatever transformation had happened to Steel.

A key turning in its lock drew his attention away from Steel’s face. There was a soft knock and then the master’s voice could be heard, asking, “Are you decent?”

It was such a strange and downright ridiculous question asked in the context of their current situation that Silver barely suppressed the giggling that welled up in his throat.

Steel in turn gave him a bemused look before he replied, “Yes, you may come in.”

The door was opened only a gap wide and the master’s head tentatively poked through it. “I’m out for a while. There are college matters I have to attend to and afterwards I’m planning to pay Lord Asriel a visit,” he told them. “No point in keeping him in the dark about where you have vanished to. If you like, feel free to use the living room, though I would advise against leaving my rooms completely until I’ve officially filed you as a guest of the college with our staff. Our porters do tend to get a bit overeager when they come across unknown and strange people on the college precinct. Furthermore, I can’t guarantee for Lord Asriel’s sportsmanship should he come across you without warning and, more importantly, without any witnesses present to keep matters public and decent between you.”

His head vanished and the door began to close but then a thought must have struck and it reappeared, “I know you’re not supposed to eat or drink, but there’s breakfast in the living room. I’ll see you at lunch-time.” His head vanished again and this time the door was pulled close for good.

“Well?” Silver asked finally, and as if in answer Steel’s stomach growled.

The ensuing silence seemed to last forever as they both stared at the noisy part of Steel’s anatomy. Finally Steel looked up and meeting Silver’s gaze he said, “I think we need to talk.”

***

Watching Steel having breakfast turned out to be even more fascinating than watching him waking up from sleep. Steel was sitting at the large dinner table that dominated a good portion of the living room. At one end of the table someone had prepared a luxurious breakfast for one, with a large pot of tea, with toast, eggs and bacon and a whole battery of marmalades filled into a rather exciting little contraption of spinning pots that could be rotated and moved up and down.

At first Silver had sat on a nearby sideboard, but he had soon discovered that he wanted to be closer to the action so to speak. He had jumped on the table itself, and now he could sit in front of Steel, talk with him and most importantly watch him _eat_.

“I don’t understand why Lord Asriel said that he had no interest in turning you into a human,” Silver said, bringing up their captor’s statement once again.

Steel only gave him a disbelieving look, one eyebrow raised, before he returned his attention to his present task of beheading an egg.

Their current discussion had circled around this subject for a while now. Without any reliable information they could only speculate about Lord Asriel’s intentions. It worried Silver. “Granted, your current behaviour seems to imply something else but what about those experiments he was talking about?” he asked.

Laying his knife aside, Steel looked down at his now headless egg. Then he looked at Silver, “Is it supposed to be runny inside?” he asked back.

“If you mean the yolk, then yes, that’s perfectly fine. Go ahead and eat it, although you might want to add a bit of salt first,” Silver answered. He felt both annoyed and amused by Steel’s question. Like yesterday, he appeared to be far less worried about all this than Silver and while there was a certain amount of entertainment involved in watching Steel, Silver’s worry about their overall situation far outweighed it.

Steel eyed the egg warily, but proceeded to do as Silver had told him. The taste seemed to be to his liking, because he ate the rest without any further encouragement.

In between bites he said, “Whatever Lord Asriel might have told us or might have planned, the fact remains that I have started to exhibit more and more human characteristics during the last two days. Believe me Silver, I wish it were otherwise, but we have to accept the facts.”

“So, you are becoming human,” Silver declared, finally giving in. In all honesty it wasn’t as if he hadn’t suspected it himself.

Steel only nodded in response, looking rather complacent and, as far as Silver could tell, his calm outward appearance actually reflected his inward acceptance of the fact, as unwelcome and inconvenient as it might be. Steel was annoyed but he wasn’t too worried or even scared.

Silver was struggling with a much more pressing dilemma, however, one that he wasn’t sure how to talk about, one he wasn’t sure if he even _wanted_ to talk about. It was a realization that touched his very core, his true self, and most probably not only his but Steel’s too, even if Steel obviously hadn’t made the connection so far. “So, you are becoming a human,” he repeated, and at Steel’s silently questioning look, he continued, “And I— I am becoming a dæmon.”

Again Steel only nodded.

 _He doesn’t understand_ , Silver thought to himself, feeling his anxiety rising. “But that can’t be right, Steel,” he exclaimed. “It simply can’t be!”

Steel’s disapproval was inevitable and it followed immediately. “I really don’t understand why you’re making such a fuss about it, Silver. Believe me, I’m fully aware about some of the more unfortunate consequences of this whole situation, but it can’t be helped. It’s essential that you accept our current situation because otherwise you won’t be of much use to me.”

As much as the words stung, they confirmed Silver’s fear that Steel really hadn’t understood the whole dimension of their predicament yet. Probably it was because Steel’s knowledge about this world, its inhabitants and the laws of nature governing it was so limited.

Silver had tried to get some of the necessary background information into Steel’s head, especially after they had learned that it would be only the two of them on this assignment as Sapphire was currently employed somewhere else. Steel had shown his usual lack of enthusiasm in dealing with anything that he didn’t see as absolutely crucial for doing his job. Therefore his grasp of such intricate concepts as the very special relationship between humans and dæmons was tenuous at best, more likely, it was non-existent.

That made it all the more important that he now learned to understand all the implications. He had to be aware how dangerous it might be to follow this path they were travelling. Silver took a deep breath and sitting up straight he folded his hands in his lap, pulling his tail between them, so he had something to take hold of, something that would hopefully stop him from nervously fiddling with something like the marmalade carousel or the spare tea spoons. He would keep his explanations simple and hope that Steel would follow him step by step.

“Steel? He asked, and when he had Steel’s undivided attention, he continued, “Exactly how much do you know about humans and dæmons in this world?”

Steel frowned. “I know that humans and dæmons always exist in pairs. You explained this to me right before we came here. You said that the human-dæmon relationship is one of the touchstones of this world’s society. You said it was something to keep in mind and that I should under no circumstances try to touch another person’s dæmon,” Steel’s voice had adopted a slight singsong as he was reciting all of Silver’s instructions. The slight mockery was a strange behaviour for Steel, very unlike him, but Silver chose to ignore it for the moment. Instead he focused on the facts. _He got a lot of it right, but not the most important part,_ Silver thought to himself. He would have to explain it again, and this time he had to make sure that Steel understood.

He was still searching for the right way to phrase his explanation, when there was a loud crash in the adjoining study that caused him to flinch in sudden fear as a name immediately sprang to his mind. One look at Steel confirmed that he was thinking the same as Silver. _Lord Asriel._

Another crash, this time coming from the door that separated the study from the living room, sent him skittering across the table while Steel’s hands simultaneously reached out for him, pulling him close until he was safely tugged away behind the barricade of Steel’s arms. Suddenly he could sense Steel all around him, tense and alert, even if he appeared outwardly calm.

As both of them had expected, it was Lord Asriel who now stood in the open doorway to the master’s study. He was a picture of anger personified, the way his chest was slightly heaving indicating that he had probably run up the stairs to the third floor. His cheeks were flushed and he was quiet literally shaking all over. His dæmon, who had appeared behind him, had slunk forward until she could crouch in front of him. Her body language, the flicking tail, the laid back ears, was a perfect mirror of his agitation.

“You’re a fool if you think this will gain you anything!” Lord Asriel said. Despite his obvious anger his voice was ice-cold.

Steel didn’t reply at first. Instead he raised his cup and took a leisurely sip of his tea. Meanwhile another man appeared behind the lord. His demeanour as well as his clothing indicated that he was a member of the staff. Red-faced and huffing as he was, it was clear that he should have prevented anyone from barging in here like that, but it was obviously too much of a task for him to deal with a lord. So instead of actually doing anything, he was mainly hovering, not daring to interfere.

Finally Steel spoke, “Lord Asriel, I’ve been expecting you. Why don’t you take a seat?”

The only reaction was a scoff, a harsh explosion of sound, conveying all the derision of the man it was coming from. “I’m only going to say this once. If you hope to _ever_ regain what’s been taken from you then you’ll return to my study within the hour. Otherwise all bets are off!” He threw a last icy glare at Steel before he whirled around and stormed out of the room.

“Sorry, Sir,” the porter stammered. Shuffling his feet, he quickly looked down, before he visibly pulled himself together. He drew a deep breath and looked up again. “I’ll be off then,” he said and, taking a few awkward back steps, he fled the room, very silently closing the door to the master’s study behind him.

For a long moment everything was silent, the only sounds being the man’s fast retreating footsteps.

Silver was just beginning to relax when their brief respite of privacy was once again interrupted. The door flew open and with such force, it slammed against the wall before swinging back in its hinges. This time it was the master himself, who stood in the open doorway, wild-eyed, his hair dishevelled and his robe hanging slightly askew around his lanky frame. Like Lord Asriel before him, he must have run up to his rooms, and for a while he did nothing more than gasp for breath, his mouth opening and closing helplessly without making a sound.

“If you’re looking for Lord Asriel, you just missed him,” Steel said drily.

The master shook his head, an almost violent gesture. Gulping down huge amounts of air, he finally managed to gush out, “No! You must come quickly! This time, someone died!”


	9. Steel

“I was afraid something terrible might happen, but I would never have thought—” The master left the sentence unfinished as he preceded Steel out of his rooms. Looking over his shoulder, he gave Steel a worried look. “Of course, the first strange things happened even before your arrival here. They worried me from the beginning, even though Lord Asriel assured me that they were mere side effects, ultimately harmless, and that they would vanish eventually. Now, however, one of our students is dead.” He shook his head. “I have no idea how to explain this to the poor boy’s parents,” he said, his voice full of sadness.

Steel was listening carefully to everything the master said, hoping to gain as much information as possible about what exactly was going on. After the master’s dramatic entrance, there had been nothing left to do but follow the old man to the place of the death. They had stepped out of the residential building into a fresh autumn morning.

The master appeared to be in shock. So far Steel had seen him largely as someone who was considering his and Silver’s capture by Lord Asriel and most of the surrounding circumstances as some sort of game. He had been worried by the phenomena he’d been talking about the other day but it had been clear that he had treated the whole affair as an equal opportunity to get at Lord Asriel, though Steel had no idea for what reasons. There seemed to exist something of a long lasting rivalry between the two men but that was mostly speculation on Steel’s part.

Now the game had suddenly turned deadly and it seemed as if the master actually rued letting it ever develop so far. The way he was hunching his shoulders as well as the haunted expression on the master’s face — his whole body language spoke of a man deeply troubled and feeling more than a little guilty.

They crossed the college’s main courtyard, heading towards the library. Before they entered the building, the master paused. Taking hold of Steel’s arm, he said in a hushed voice, “Listen, so far no one has informed the authorities, but I don’t know how long I can prevent that from happening. If they arrive… when they arrive, make sure you don’t draw any attention, understood? We should make certain that anything that has happened in the last three days, anything concerning your arrival and Lord Asriel is kept a secret for the time being.” He looked at Steel searchingly before he continued, his voice turning even more urgent, “It’s in your own best interest, too. Should your presence here and your—” Here his eyes flicked up and down as if he was searching for a fitting phrase to describe Steel’s current condition. “—your current state become known to the authorities or, even worse, to the Magisterium, I doubt they would allow you to stay here. Most likely they would cart you away as an object of study.”

Steel nodded. The thought was disconcerting. He felt Silver shift on his shoulder. He could imagine that Silver would find the thought of being held captive again even more disturbing than he did. His thoughts returned to their interrupted breakfast conversation. Silver had been so skittish when they had discussed the obvious changes that had happened to both of them. Steel had been surprised by his colleague’s reaction, surprised and annoyed.

Between the two of them — no, he corrected himself, even between the three of them including Sapphire — Silver had always been the one who had prided himself on his knowledge and open-mindedness. He had been even more lenient than Sapphire when it came to exploring certain aspects of the human forms they assumed while on assignments.

Granted, being turned into a dæmon was not exactly the same, nonetheless Steel couldn’t understand the amount of anxiety he had felt coming from Silver. The memory made him pause. Yes, he had felt Silver’s anxiety very clearly and that itself was strange. Directly after his capture he hadn’t been able to sense anything from Silver. He was sure he would have noticed, even if the first hours had been rather confusing. Now, however, he seemed to be developing a continual awareness of Silver’s presence and his emotional state. Steel concentrated on it and, yes, there he was, Silver, a warm, vibrant and decidedly anxious mind right beside him. This was interesting, even if it didn’t make any sense. This new awareness of his was certainly nothing a normal human had. So why did he? Before he could follow this train of thought any further the master caught his attention with a tug at his sleeve.

“Are you listening to me?” the master asked. By the sound of it, he wasn’t asking for the first time. “I said we should go inside.” He gave Steel an impatient look.

“What are we waiting for then?” Steel replied.

The master deigned him with nothing but another disapproving frown. He pushed open the heavy doors leading within the library building. Inside they were greeted by one of the college’s porters, whose task obviously was to turn anyone around who might try to enter the library. The burly man gave them only a quick glance, then nodded courteously, saying “Master,” and stepped aside, allowing them to pass.

The library consisted of two adjoining multi-storey reading halls, the main one and a secondary slightly smaller one behind it. The last time he had been here, Steel hadn’t given his surroundings that much of his attention. He had been focused on determining the possible source of the time break. This time it was different and naturally the books were what first caught his eye. There were thousands of them, filling the bookshelves that covered the walls and stood row after row in parallel lines, dividing both sides of the hall. No people were present here, the porter obviously had seen to that, but there were signs of them having left in quite a hurry, their robes and jackets still hanging over backrests, satchels and bags standing beside chairs or on top of a desk, papers and pens strewn around and lying forlorn, having been dropped by readers and researchers. It all gave the place an eerie atmosphere of desolation and forgetfulness.

Following in the master’s wake, Steel hurried through the first hall, taking all of this in, wondering where they were heading. His question was soon enough answered when he saw a group of men and one woman standing right in the centre of the second hall. He felt his curiosity grow as he scrutinized them. Three of them, including the woman, wore robes like the master. Those were obviously belonging to the teachers of the college. The other two appeared to belong to the staff. Most likely they were porters or groundskeepers like their colleague who was standing guard at the building’s entrance. They were all talking in hushed voices and by the way they stood close together it was apparent that there was something in their midst, something they were watching, but that was hidden from Steel’s view.

As he and the master came closer their footsteps caused heads to turn, and at the sight of the master of the college coming back those that had stood with their backs to them turned around. Steel tried to catch a glimpse of what he presumed to be the body of the victim but apart from a brief glimmer of something metallic he couldn’t get a clear view.

He felt his curiosity heighten even more until he was practically burning with it. The feeling was surprisingly strong and he was just beginning to wonder if it was one of the side-effects of his transformation when he was startled by a sudden movement by Silver, who leaped from his shoulder and managed to cling to a bookshelf Steel had just passed causing him to stumble slightly.

 _I’m just taking a look around,_ Silver’s voice echoed in his mind, almost too faint to be heard.

Steel stopped to watch as Silver sped over the row of parallel bookshelves, jumping in graceful arcs from one to the next until he had reached the one nearest to the group of people. There Steel saw him intently staring down, and now he thought he understood: it had been Silver’s curiosity, not his own, that had troubled him.

He shook his head, feeling highly irritated. He didn’t understand what was going on, but he had a dawning suspicion it might have something to do with Silver’s anxiety during their earlier conversation. What had Silver said? He had asked Steel how much he knew about humans and dæmons. If he thought about it, Steel had to admit that he knew practically nothing about them. He knew that in this world every human had a dæmon. All dæmons held the form of animals, though they were as intelligent as humans and could talk like them, and because of the special relationship between humans and their dæmons there existed some form of irrational taboo to touch another one’s dæmon. He certainly hadn’t known that humans and their dæmons shared some form of empathic link, but that was obviously the case. The realization made him wonder how much more important information he was missing.

He heard the master clearing his throat as they reached his colleagues. “Gentlemen, Miss Joyce,” the master said, “I have fetched my guest. This is Mr Steel. He has some expertise with strange and awful phenomena like those that seem to be happening to us. I’ve asked him to take a look.”

There was a mumbled chorus of polite greetings coming from the group. Steel didn’t pay them any attention. All his concentration was focused on what was finally revealed as the group parted to let him see what they had so effectively hidden until then.

To Steel’s astonishment it wasn’t a dead body, at least not a body like he had expected. As the men stepped aside, a statue appeared in their midst, but it was the most curious statue Steel had ever seen. It was the likeness of a boy, or more precisely of a human adolescent approaching manhood, wearing a student’s uniform. He stood with his legs apart, and his hands raised in front of him, palms outward, as if he was bracing himself against an approaching threat. This impression was enhanced by the look of surprise and fear on his face. Steel took a step closer intent on getting every detail and began circling the statue.

“His name is Timothy Arlton, or perhaps I should say he was Timothy Arlton,” the master spoke from behind him. “According to Ms Joyce, our librarian, he was the first this morning to arrive — always such a serious student this one. He worked all through the early hours alone in this hall.” He made a sweeping gesture with both of his arms, as if that would explain why.

Steel looked at him questioningly.

“It’s the cold, you see?” the woman elaborated. “We’ve had some problems with the heating for a couple of days now. So, everyone tends to congregate in the main hall where it’s warmer. Timmy didn’t care, however. He said he didn’t want to walk all the way in here whenever he needed another book.” The woman swallowed hard. “I saw no reason why I shouldn’t let him at the time. That is until there was this scream. It was horrible. I immediately came looking of course, and here he stood, frozen like this.” At her last words her voice had dropped to nothing more than a broken whisper. “There has never happened anything like that in my library. Never!” she added. Now she seemed to be close to tears.

The colleague to her right softly patted her shoulder, while the librarian’s dæmon, a small, brownish owl, was gently rubbing its head against the woman’s ear, obviously wanting to soothe her distress.

“Was there anything else? Any signs as to the cause?” Steel asked, letting his gaze slowly wander from one of the men to the next.

“It was cold,” one of them replied, then hastily continued when more than one of the others opened their mouths to comment. “I mean, it was colder than it should have been, even without any functioning heating. Remember?” he asked, turning towards the librarian, who after a moment of consideration, slowly nodded. The speaker turned back to Steel. “It was so cold I could see my breath.”

“What about the statue itself? Was it cold, too?” Steel asked.

This time his question drew a long silence as glances went back and forth between the men. It was the librarian, who answered. “No one has touched it so far. We weren’t sure if it was safe.” She lowered her gaze but quickly looked up again, an uneasy expression overshadowing her earlier sadness. “What if it’s contagious?” she asked.

The idea seemed too far-fetched to seriously contemplate. Steel turned around again, giving the statue a considering gaze. It seemed to be made of some sort of alloy, though he couldn’t determine the exact composition of the material. He looked up and made eye contact with Silver.

 _Go on, Steel._ The reply came instantly, though it was even fainter than the last thoughts Silver had directed at him. _I can’t see why it should be dangerous._

Steel watched as Silver slowly climbed down the bookshelf. He didn’t wait for his dæmon to join him. Taking another half step towards the statue, he slowly reached out and laid his hand on its shoulder.

It hit him instantly, a shock like an electrical current that ran through his arm and into his body. It hurt and it felt like a fist was clamping around his heart, squeezing hard. He couldn’t breathe; he couldn’t make a sound, even though he desperately wanted to scream. Everything seemed to slow, and while he couldn’t move, his vision was crystal clear. Instinctively his eyes sought out Silver. Steel saw his dæmon’s small body jerk violently, saw him losing his grip and fall, hitting the floor with a horrible thud. It was the last thing he saw before everything went black.


	10. Silver

Silver’s head hurt. No, that wasn’t correct. It wasn’t just his head that hurt. The ache had settled in every part of his body with equal intensity.

For a moment he was confused as to what had happened but then his memories slowly returned. The last thing he could remember was him climbing down the bookshelf he had been perched on while Steel had been about to touch that boy-statue. Then something had struck, something that had felt like a bolt of lightning, harsh, shrill and painful. When darkness had claimed him, he had been sure he was dying. Obviously he hadn’t though and he was at least halfway positive that he would be grateful about that once some of the residual ache had abated.

Groaning softly, he opened his eyes. He hadn’t given much thought to everything else but his own body so far, although he had noticed that the surface he was lying on was strangely warm. Now, as he raised his head, he understood the reason for it. He was quite literally lying on top of Steel. The realization came as something of a shock.

Someone must have bundled them both up and brought them back to this room, and the same someone had thought it prudent to place his dæmon on Steel’s chest, possibly hoping that the physical contact might be helpful in promoting their recuperation. Very carefully Silver raised his head a bit more, using his hands to push himself up until he could take a good look at Steel’s face. This was the second time that he woke before Steel. Maybe that was normal. Even though his knowledge about humans and dæmons was a hundred times more profound than Steel’s, he knew that there were large gaps in it. He certainly hadn’t any knowledge about dæmonic sleeping habits.

He paused in his train of thought. Something felt wrong; something about their situation felt wrong. He examined what he knew and what he had thought since he had woken up. It struck him almost immediately. Someone had bundled them up and brought them here. The idea played through his mind. Someone had bundled them up and something was wrong with that picture, terribly wrong. Suddenly he knew. It was the action itself or more precisely the logical consequence of it that made him shiver. Someone must have _touched_ him, someone other than Steel. The mere notion brought with it such a wave of revulsion, causing him to tense, his hands clenching into naked flesh underneath him. His eyes pressed shut in an attempt to fight back the sudden sense of nausea. He was only dimly aware of the groan coming from Steel, before arms closed around him.

“What is it?” Steel’s voice asked hoarsely.

 _Nothing_ , Silver answered. He felt hands stroking over his back, the contact immediately soothing and familiar.

“I can’t hear you, Silver,” Steel said. “It’s something I had wanted to tell you earlier. It seems that either your ability to project your thoughts is lessening or I’m finally losing the ability to hear them, just like I seem to have lost everything else.”

His words made Silver tense all over again. Opening his eyes, he tried to raise himself. He felt the sudden urge to distance himself, the closeness between them that had felt calming for a moment suddenly felt suffocating. To his irritation he felt Steel’s arms tighten, obviously unwilling to let him up so easily.

“Steel, let me go!” he said aloud, his hands pushing against Steel’s chest in an attempt to break free, even though it was all too clear how futile it was, considering their difference in size and strength. It was that last realization that suddenly sent him into a full blown panic, because this wasn’t new. Steel had always been far stronger than him. Regardless of their state of matter, he had always had the ability to overpower Silver, or Sapphire come to think of it, but Sapphire was far away right now and not able to help. Notwithstanding Steel’s superior strength there had _always_ been the absolute if unspoken faith between them that Steel would never use that strength against either of them.

Now it seemed that faith had been broken. The thought was too much for Silver. He felt trapped and he needed to escape immediately. Without thinking he used every means he had to do so. Sharp teeth and grooming claws sunk deep into exposed flesh and Steel let him go with a shout of pain. Silver was startled that he felt the pain as if it was his own, but that didn’t stop him from instantly using the chance to break free. It took him only a few leaps and he had climbed the large wardrobe, fleeing out of Steel’s reach.

“Silver! What the—” Steel exclaimed loudly as he sat up in bed, throwing Silver an angry look before he lowered his gaze to inspect his chest.

Following Steel’s gaze, Silver stared at the bloody bite marks and angry scratches he had left there in his panicked attempt to free himself. He needed to apologise he thought. Before he could come up with anything, however, the door to their room flew open and a man stormed into their room, a bewildered look on his face.

“What is it?” the man asked loudly, a bewildered look on his face. “I heard you shouting.” He looked at Steel, at his chest, and then his gaze searched the room until it came to rest on Silver, perched on his vantage point.

Silver remembered the man from the library, where he had been one of the group of people who had stood around the statue. He had been the youngest of the group, probably in his thirties, with a plump look to his face and stature. Back then he had looked positively ashen, now his face held a rosy hue. Silver saw the man’s eyes grow wide in shock as he stared up at him.

The man looked back at Steel. “Did your dæmon attack you? What’s wrong?” he asked again, his voice taking on the high pitch of incredulity.

Steel didn’t answer at first, but stared at the man gloomily. The look was so very much like the old Steel that it was almost enough to calm Silver’s frantic mind, but only almost.

The man seemed to take Steel’s silence as a sign that something was most definitely wrong. He slowly advanced on Steel. “My name is Moran, Doctor Moran,” he said, his voice taking on a gently tone now, appropriate to soothe a confused patient or a wounded animal. “That was an awful shock you got hit with back in the library. Let us check that we’re not suffering from any serious after-effects, right?” He gave Steel a cautious smile. He was about to sit down on the side of the bed when Steel said, “Out!” It was only a single word, but the tone of his voice made the doctor stop in his tracks.

It made Silver’s fur bristle. He knew that voice, knew what it meant. It was a promise for the worst to happen if one wouldn’t do as they were told.

The doctor seemed to reach the same conclusion because he raised his hands in a placating gesture and took a handful of steps backwards until he was again standing in the open doorway. “Very well,” he said slowly. “No need to get agitated. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call. I’ve promised the master to stay close until his return.” He smiled again and pulling the door closed behind him, he left. A second later the key turned in its lock.

Silver had no idea what to do or say next. He was still frightened and confused as well as more than a little angry. This was all happening far too fast and he couldn’t cope with it.

“Get down here, now!” Steel said, breaking the silence, his voice only marginally less threatening than it had been when he had chased away the doctor.

For a second Silver almost obeyed, unquestioningly and like a dæmon probably should, but then he caught himself. “I don’t think so,” he replied instead.

Steel silently stared up at him.

 _Steel_? Silver thought tentatively. He didn’t want to believe that he was losing the ability to reach out like that.

“I told you, Silver,” Steel answered impatiently. “I can barely hear you now, and I don’t understand a word, so why don’t you just shut it?” He glared at Silver, then seemed to come to a decision. Without saying another word, he got out of bed and walked across the room. He picked up his discarded shirt that someone had neatly folded and placed on the nearby cupboard and vanished through the room’s second door into the adjoining lavatory.

Shortly afterwards Silver could hear the sound of running water. It sounded like Steel was taking a shower. Silver took a deep breath. He was grateful for the reprieve, however short it might be. He had to organise his thoughts, because it was high time that he explained the whole extent of the mess they had landed in, and explained it with all the risks and consequences it might entail. He only hoped that Steel would understand it quickly enough. He also owed it to Steel, whose bewilderment and anger at Silver’s violent rejection had been born mostly out of incomprehension. Silver was aware of that, even if it didn’t make their current situation more bearable to him.

He climbed down from the wardrobe. There was one thing he had to do, that he had to try before anything else. Making his way over to the locked door that led to the living-room, he jumped up, grabbing the door-handle with one hand, so that he hung from it, with his free hand near enough to reach the locking mechanism. Concentrating as hard as he could, he placed his fingers over it and pushed with his mind. It didn’t budge. He tried once more only to fail again.

It didn’t come as such a terrible surprise. Silver had feared this outcome. Nonetheless, it was a depressing thought that this ability, too, was gone. He let go of the door handle and went over to the bed. He decided that the foot-rest might be the best place to wait for Steel to come back. He didn’t want to return to the wardrobe. Staying up there would definitely send the wrong signal. For equal reasons the bed was out of the question too. Yes, the foot-rest presented a good compromise.

***

Silver waited patiently until the door to the lavatory opened and Steel stood in the open doorframe. He had a pensive look on his face that quickly changed to surprise when he saw Silver, perching on the bed’s foot-rest.

Carefully refraining from using only his mental voice, Silver took a deep breath and said aloud, “Look, Steel, I understand that my recent behaviour must have seemed somewhat inexplicable to you. I apologise for that.”

For a while Steel just looked at him, his expression inscrutable, although Silver could sense the hidden emotions clearly: surprise and anger, as well as satisfaction and hope all warred in Steel’s mind.

“Let’s talk,” he told Steel. “We were interrupted this morning and this is important.” He gestured towards the bed and, not for the first time, he hated the fact that he’d lost the ability to smile. He had always liked smiling. He had always considered it a door-opener as well as such a friendly and harmless gesture, even though Steel had taunted him for it far too often. His current face, however, wasn’t equipped with a mouth suitable to smile with. He had tried, had inspected his image in the window’s glass last evening. He had been so disconcerted by the result that he had decided it was better to give up on it.

Now he was vastly relieved when Steel only hesitated for a second before he came over to the bed and sat down. Silver turned around so he could face Steel again. His position on the foot-rest had the advantage that he was at eye level with Steel and considering what he wanted to discuss, he felt that he very much needed to be at equal heights.

“Explain,” Steel said.

“This is all far more complex than it appears on the surface,” Silver began. “First, I think I should explain a bit more about humans and dæmons. While you’ve got some of the important facts right, there are others you’ve been obviously unaware of so far. To cut straight to the heart of the matter, it’s completely wrong to think of a human and his or her dæmon as a pair. I know that’s the concept you have in your mind but you should forget it immediately. A human and a dæmon are _one_ being, not two. The dæmon is nothing more but an externalized and personified part of the inner self of a human. Together they form _one_ individual.” He paused and studied Steel’s face, wanting to see if his colleague understood what he was saying and more importantly if Steel was getting the implications.

Steel looked at him intently, his head slightly cocked to the side. He was frowning.

“Don’t you see, Steel? Don’t you understand what that means? What this might do to us?” Silver prodded. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t expect Steel to get it on his own. It was a concept Silver himself had found difficult to comprehend, and in some ways Steel’s mind was far more inflexible than his own. Right now he could sense Steel’s puzzlement.

“I don’t see what this has to do with us, Silver,” Steel finally said, confirming Silver’s fears.

He barely suppressed a sigh of frustration. “We are both changing, Steel! And it’s a much more profound change than turning you from an element into one thing and me into another. Remember how the master spoke of a transfiguration? Whatever has been done to us, it’s something fundamental as it takes away what we are. It’s blending us, Steel, turning two into one. And it seems that I am the one who will be lost in the process.”

“Why should you get lost?” Steel asked.

“Because I’m the dæmon here. I’m becoming an extension of your personality, of your inner self. I’m already feeling it, and when the process is complete, I, Silver, will cease to exist!” He loathed this scenario he was painting, describing his own inevitable disappearance. It made him tremble and he climbed down from the foot-rest to prevent himself from falling off it. Looking up at Steel, he asked again, “Do you see it now?”

This time, Steel nodded, but then shook his head even more vehemently.

“Yes, I see what you mean, but no, I can’t accept the consequences you’re predicting.”

Silver groaned. “You make it sound as if we had a choice,” he replied. He was startled by the bitterness that echoed in his words. “But we don’t have one, Steel. I mean, look at you.” He waved his hand at Steel, sitting in front of him, his hair still damp from the shower, his clothes more than slightly rumpled after having been slept in.

For a while an uneasy silence fell between them. Silver was deeply wrapped up in his own unhappy thoughts and so it took him a while before he realised that Steel was smiling at him. He gave Steel an incredulous look.

“Oh, come now, Silver,” Steel said in response to it. “Are you seriously trying to tell me you’re afraid of _vanishing?_ ” Steel shook his head. “I can’t believe that. You’re _Silver_. Whatever pressure this transfiguration you’re talking of might put upon you, I know you can withstand it. I _know_ you can.” He leaned forward, staring at Silver as if Steel wanted to convince him of the truth of his words with the sheer intensity of his gaze.

It startled Silver but it wasn’t the pure stubbornness expressed in Steel’s words nor the vehemence with which they were stated. He knew both very well. What startled him was the sudden realization that Steel truly believed in his words and in Silver’s ability to carry through. He could sense Steel’s conviction clearly. In a way it really was a shame, because, although he felt flattered by Steel’s belief in him, this time Steel simply had it wrong. Silver _was_ fading, they _both_ were and it would continue regardless how much Steel chose to believe otherwise.

“I think we should return to the library,” Steel said, changing the subject. “I want to take another look at that statue and the master mentioned other phenomena happening before. I want to talk to him as soon as possible. Obviously we’re missing large pieces of the picture, and if solving this mystery of his is what it takes to get us out of here in the end, then that is what we’re going to do.”

Steel made it all sound so easy, but Silver couldn’t allow him to get away just like that. “What if he wants more? What if he isn’t capable of doing, what he claims? What if it is only that lord, after all, who has the means to reverse whatever he has done to us?” he asked.

The look his questions earned him was as much pure condescension as it was pure old Steel and it made his heart feel lighter, even if it should have annoyed him to no end.

“Let’s take one step after the other. There’s no use in worrying about things we don’t know,” Steel answered, ever the pragmatist. He let his gaze wander across the room. “And if we’re taking this step by step, why don’t you start by opening that door?”

The last question sent Silver’s momentarily heightened spirits plummeting down again

“I can’t, Steel,” he answered, his voice almost dropping to a whisper. “I’ve already tried, but it’s no use. I can’t.”

For a long moment Steel wordlessly looked at him. Then he stretched out his arm in invitation.

Silver knew that he shouldn’t; he really shouldn’t. This had been the whole point of his struggle, to explain the way they were both so easily slipping into their new joined identity here. Nonetheless, he also felt an overpowering desire for reconciliation, to close the rift between them his earlier actions had created, and so he allowed the by now so familiar habit of being picked up like this. He sighed to himself. Maybe now wasn’t the best time for insisting on his independence.


	11. Steel

When Steel knocked on the door to the living-room, it wasn’t the doctor who opened, but the master himself. At Steel’s questioning look, he said, “I’ve sent Doctor Moran away. He told me some rather strange things.” He looked flustered, his gaze quickly flicking back and forth between Steel and Silver as if he wanted to convince himself that nothing too unseemly had occurred between them.

Steel wondered what exactly that Doctor Moran might have told the master, but he had no time for the old man’s questions right now. He had decided on the most promising course of action and he wouldn’t be deterred from it by such trivialities. He owed it to Silver as well as to himself. “I want to return to that statue. Is it still in the library, or have you moved it somewhere else?” he asked.

The master shook his head. “We’ve taken him— I mean it to our infirmary. Not that I think it will do him any good, but we couldn’t think of a better place,” he said. “But tell me, how do you feel? That looked like such a terrible shock you got there.” His expression turned anxious as he looked at Steel searchingly.

“It was. Thanks for reminding me. I’m feeling much better now. Shouldn’t we concentrate on your problems though” Steel answered drily. He didn’t give the master any chance to get in another word. Putting on one of his best forbidding looks, he continued, “Show me to the infirmary, will you? You can tell me all the details as we go.” He walked through the living room and had already passed halfway through the master’s study, before the old man picked up with him.

***

Together they went down to the building’s ground floor where, as the master was telling him during their walk, the small infirmary of Jordan College was situated. They had used the utmost care in transporting the ‘poor boy’ he continued. No one had touched the statue with their bare hands and most likely that had prevented any further incidents like the one that had happened to Steel.

“Ah, here we are,” the master said at last as they reached a short corridor that ended at a large two-winged door. Throwing Steel a relieved look, he was just about to open it, when someone who was obviously on their way out pre-empted him, causing the master to stumble backwards at the unexpectedness of it and Steel couldn’t help but flinch when he found himself suddenly face to face with Lord Asriel.

The man seemed to be in quite a hurry and, without so much as a perfunctory greeting, he walked past, forcing the master and Steel to step aside to let him through between them. The master stared after him, his face a mixture of suspicion and indignation. Whirling around, he marched through the infirmary’s open door, calling out, “Doctor Moran! A word, if you please!”

“What was _he_ doing here?” Silver asked, his voice hushed so that it wouldn’t carry any further than Steel’s ear.

Steel had been asking himself the same question, but only shook his head as he followed the master into the room. He saw the doctor standing in the open doorway leading to another room. His daemon, a small terrier, was standing at his side. The young man appeared to be slightly flustered as the master descended upon him.

“Doctor Moran, would you care to explain what Lord Asriel has been doing here? I think I gave rather precise orders that _no_ _spectators_ should be allowed access to that poor student. I hope you haven’t disregarded that order. I would be very disappointed to hear that you’ve decided to make a spectacle out of such a tragic accident.” The master was pulling all the stops of his rank and position on the younger man. Steel was curious how the doctor would try to explain Lord Asriel’s presence.

For the most part of the master’s speech the doctor had listened with outward calm, but as soon as the master had finished his agitation broke through his carefully upheld control. Angrily he said, “I have to protest, Master. First of all you can hardly call Lord Asriel a _spectator_. Secondly he was so kind as to come here and offer his assistance. Considering his exemplary reputation as a scholar I thought it only prudent to ask him for his advice. Unfortunately he had very little to contribute but that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, considering just how bizarre these latest events have been.” He paused, throwing a hostile look at Steel before he continued, “It might interest you that I have also consulted him on the very strange mental disorder I’ve observed only recently. I’ve told you what I saw and now I wonder what you might think of a man who attacks or is attacked by his own dæmon.” He let his gaze pointedly rest on Steel the whole time, even if he was outwardly addressing the master.

After the doctor’s words an uncomfortable silence fell between them.

Steel decided that it might be best to let the master deal with this troublemaker on his own. He certainly had no intention of sharing any information about himself or Silver or the changes they were struggling with. He paused. _Mostly it is Silver who is struggling_ , he corrected himself, but if it came to the doctor that detail was as irrelevant as anything else.

Addressing both men, Steel said, “I presume the statue is through there?” He pointed towards the doorway where the doctor had appeared at his and the master’s entrance in the infirmary. At the man’s reluctant nod, he walked towards it, ignoring both the doctor’s sounds of protest as well as the master’s conciliatory remarks how unusual situations might lead to equally unusual behaviour.

***

When Steel entered the neighbouring room he found the statue standing right in its centre. It looked exactly as he remembered it from the library. Briefly he paused in the open doorway before slowly walking closer. He was so focused on his examination that it startled him when Silver left his shoulder, first jumping to the floor and then on a table that stood near the statue.

“Everything alright?” Steel asked. He found it strangely irritating that Silver chose the first moment they were alone to leave him again.

“Fine,” came Silver’s terse reply.

The reply was so obviously a lie, Steel barely managed to suppress an involuntary scoff. He decided to ignore Silver for the time being. There would be time to deal with him later. Again Steel concentrated all his attention on the statue. As he had already deduced in the library, it was made out of some kind of metal. The colour was a dark anthracite with a very soft metallic shimmer where the room’s lights were reflected on its surface.

“Do you have any idea what kind of metal this is?” he asked. He wasn’t sure if he would get an answer, but it came readily enough.

“By the looks of it, it’s neither bronze nor iron. It appears to be some kind of alloy, though I can’t tell its exact composition,” Silver answered. He sat on the table’s edge and was eying the statue warily.

“By his posture it seems clear that the boy was aware that he was in danger,” Steel continued. Mimicking the boy’s posture, he raised his hands. “Whatever it was that did this to him, he saw it coming, but obviously he wasn’t able to get away.” Steel wondered which conclusions he could draw from this, when he had another idea. “Silver, I’m going to call that doctor in here. I want you to get in his way. I want you to make him stumble, so that he touches the statue.”

Silver gave him a long and guarded look. “Why don’t you just ask him to do it?” he asked.

Steel couldn’t help but wonder if Silver was playing purposefully dense. “Because,” he said with forced patience, “he will most certainly refuse, and we need to find out if that shock I received happens to everyone or if it is something specifically limited to us.”

Again Silver stared at him, long and silently before looking away. Grabbing his tail and starting to groom it, he finally said, “Well, I think I have to refuse, too. Sorry, Steel.”

“What?” Steel asked, feeling his anger rise. He wasn’t sure if Silver was being purposefully difficult or just his usual annoying self. He briefly considered confronting him about it, then thought better of it. Clearly this was an effect of Silver changing into a dæmon; he was becoming increasingly more unreliable. It was an unfortunate development but it obviously couldn’t be helped. So instead of all the other things that lay on his tongue he only said, “Fine, I’ll do it myself, then.”

Turning towards the door, he called, “Doctor? Would you please come in here for a moment?”

When he heard answering footsteps he threw one glance at Silver. He didn’t expect him to actively sabotage his plan, but in Silver’s current state of mind, Steel couldn’t be absolutely sure either. Ridiculous as it felt to Steel, maybe Silver was considering his refusal as some form of misguided statement of independence. He gave his dæmon another sharp glance, briefly wondering if Silver would go so far as to actively sabotage his plan. No, he decided after a moment. Silver seemed to be content to observe what was happening.

When the doctor appeared in the doorway, he had the master following closely behind him. Steel hadn’t expected that, but it was nothing but a minor complication.

“What is it?” the doctor asked.

Steel wordlessly waved him inside, and though the young man looked at him suspiciously he obediently stepped closer. From there it was only a matter of waiting for the right moment to push the young man forward, making him stumble, so that he would have to reach out and catch himself by grabbing the statue’s raised hands.

The doctor yelled in surprise, a high pitched shriek more suitable for a child than a fully grown man. He obviously hadn’t suffered the same shock as Steel had earlier. Nonetheless he whirled around and for a moment he looked as if he was actually considering attacking Steel, holding his fists at chest-height while his dæmon was angrily yapping at Steel. “Just what kind of deranged personality are you?” the doctor exclaimed.

Before Steel could answer, it was the master who stepped in, defusing the situation that threatened to spill into physical violence, even if his words were as much an accusation as the doctor’s had been.

“Sir!” he addressed Steel. “I’m absolutely shocked at this kind of behaviour! How can you risk our dear Doctor’s well-being just like that? It isn’t as if you wouldn’t know from personal experience how dangerous touching this statue can be!”

He was clearly expecting some kind of apology from Steel, but that was something that was farthest from his mind. “Doctor, Master, I was absolutely certain that there was not the slightest hint of any danger,” he said instead. “And now, I must ask you to leave. It is essential that I continue with my investigation and quite frankly, you’re in my way.”

He watched as both men reacted with different degrees of open indignation, but at least the master seemed willing to leave him alone. He watched the old man turn and gently drag the doctor out of the room.

They had barely left the room when he heard a dirty snigger from behind. Obviously Silver thought this was funny. “You’ve got something to say?” Steel asked. He turned, giving Silver a questioning look, but his dæmon only stared back at him innocently and stayed silent. Steel sighed, before he continued, “So, it didn’t affect our good doctor. Now we have to find out, if that’s just because it has lost its potential to harm or if its effect only bears on us.” He paused, giving the statue a resigned look. “I guess I have to try it again. Just to see if the phenomenon is still active.” That comment drew an immediate reaction.

“No!” Silver exclaimed. “The last time was bad enough!”

That reaction Steel hadn’t expected. So far Silver’s behaviour had made it clear that he didn’t want to get involved in Steel’s investigation. Then it dawned on Steel. _He’s afraid he might suffer the consequences, too, if I touch the statue._ The thought was something of a shock. If Silver was really turning into his dæmon, where exactly was this cowardly streak coming from? Steel took a step towards the statue.

His movement caused Silver to jump down from the desk. Hurriedly he circled the statue and came over to Steel, climbing up his leg and back until he could pull himself up onto Steel’s shoulder.

Steel wasn’t too sure what Silver was planning to do. He felt confused and slightly worried by Silver’s close presence. “If you dare biting me again, Silver, I swear you’re going to regret it!” He had meant to say it calmly and was surprised at the harshness of his own voice.

Silver reacted by firmly clutching his hair, though the grip wasn’t too painful. “Don’t be an idiot, Steel,” he answered. “But if anyone should try their luck with that statue, it should be me and not you again.”

“That’s completely out of the question,” Steel shot back, rejecting the idea immediately. Before he could react in any sensible way, however, Silver had already let go of his hair and with a strong push of his legs he jumped from Steel’s shoulder and this time right onto the statue’s head. His strong forward motion caused the statue to sway and it was only Steel’s swift reflexes that stopped it toppling over as he gripped both it and his dæmon, ending up with both of them in either arm.

For a long moment neither of them moved. Steel was furious and he could barely restrain himself from yelling at Silver for acting so irresponsible. Silver on the other hand was obviously all too aware of Steel’s anger. He was reacting to it with resentment and fear that was equally strong. Steel could sense those very clearly and it did nothing to calm his own seething mind.

Letting go of Silver and letting him drop to the floor, Steel carefully rightened the statue. Without giving Silver a single glance, Steel walked out of the room, not caring if Silver would follow him or not.


	12. Silver

Silver watched as Steel purposefully strode out of the room. He couldn’t remember ever feeling so miserable than he was feeling now. Somehow whatever he was doing or saying today was wrong, and Steel seemed to have come to the conclusion that it was all Silver’s own fault.

Slowly he followed Steel out of the room, knowing it wouldn’t do to stay behind. He was well aware that humans and their dæmons weren’t able to separate over more than a few yards. Of course, Steel most likely had no idea of that particular restriction, and even if he did, right now Silver wouldn’t put it past him to wilfully stretch that distance even if it would not only hurt Silver but himself, too.

When Silver came back into the infirmary’s main room he found Steel and the master already deep in conversation while there was no sign of the doctor. Silver looked up at the two men as they stood together. Briefly he thought about getting up onto Steel’s shoulder but he was painfully certain that right now he wouldn’t be welcome there.

“Why don’t we return to my rooms?” he heard the master say and at Steel’s nod of agreement, the two of them walked towards the infirmary’s exit. Steel continued to ignore him, leaving Silver with no other choice but to trail behind them.

***

After they had returned to the master’s rooms, Steel and the master briefly discussed what their next actions should be. Steel insisted that it was high time that he finally got all of the information about those strange sightings and occurrences the master had mentioned during the last days.

It almost seemed as if time or fate was somehow conspiring against them. Steel's and Silver's involuntary nap had taken them out for a good portion of the day. The master was pressed for time now, though he promised to return as soon as possible. It was, he added, in everyone’s best interest that they started to get behind the mystery of all that was happening rather sooner than later.

Meanwhile Silver tried to be as unobtrusive as possible. He had positioned himself on one of the sideboards that lined the wall near the dinner table. Far enough away from the two men sitting at that table and yet close enough to listen and observe them.

He watched with trepidation as the master left. It seemed that it was time that he and Steel had another talk, but for the life of him he had no idea how to begin. The decision was taken away from him, however, when Steel rose and turning away from him he walked towards their guest-room. “I’m going to lie down for a while. I’m not feeling too well,” he said. Opening the door, he cast Silver a glance over his shoulder. “Leave it, Silver,” he told him before he vanished through the door and closed it behind him.

***

The next few hours passed incredibly slowly. Silver spent most of them giving the master’s rooms a thorough inspection. He had noticed with some relief that Steel really had lied down and had quickly fallen asleep. For a while Silver had feared that he had used his mention of not feeling well just as an excuse to brood in their room.

To Silver’s disappointment the master’s suite didn’t seem to contain any things that were of particular interest to him. Granted the loss of practically all of his abilities had brought with it a certain lack of enthusiasm. When he discovered the large amount of silver cutlery in one of the sideboards, he only gave it a wistful look, saying “Hello shinies,” before he closed the board’s doors again and continued in his survey.

In the end he gave up on it altogether, feeling fed up and bored. He sat down on one of the room’s window sills. Staring out into the courtyard he watched the students’ and staff’s comings and goings and waited for Steel to wake up or the master to return, whatever might happen first.

***

Day had already turned into early evening until the more than once postponed talk about what was really going on in Jordan College finally took place. Silver had been greatly relieved when the master had finally made his reappearance. The old man had given him a very odd look at seeing him sitting at the window, but hadn’t commented. Instead he had first vanished into his own bedroom. Silver knew, because he had given that room at least a quick going-through even if it had produced even less items of interest than the living-room or study had.

After only a few minutes the master had returned and this time he had went over to the guestroom’s closed door. After a soft knock he had inquired if Steel was awake.

Silver had felt Steel slowly wake up, had felt the slight disorientation and had heard the muffled “a minute”. The master had given him another odd look and he guessed that he probably shouldn’t be out here, but for the moment it couldn’t be helped.

It did take considerably more than a minute before Steel finally came out of the guestroom. He didn’t look well. There were dark rings under his eyes and he had a ruffled look about him that couldn’t be explained by the fact that he had just risen from sleep. Silver hoped that it were only the after-effects of the shock Steel had received after touching the statue for the first time, but he couldn’t be sure. He was worried and the impulse to run over to Steel was almost overpowering.

Steel, however, didn’t seem to share that urge. He studiously ignored his dæmon as he walked over to one of the large armchairs standing in front of the room’s fireplace and sat down with a weary sigh.

The master followed his example, choosing the other armchair, giving Silver another curious glance before sat down, too. “You don’t look too well, if you don’t mind me saying so,” he said to Steel. “Are you unwell?”

Steel’s only reaction was a noncommittal hum. He had closed his eyes, leaning against the chair’s backrest. “Why don’t you tell me what exactly is going on,” he finally replied in lieu of an answer to the master’s question. Opening his eyes, he leaned forward and gave the master a piercing look. “I take it our— how did you put it? Ah, yes, our gentlemen’s agreement still stands? I’m going to help you with your little problem and in return you’ll make sure that whatever Lord Asriel has done to us is reversed?”

From his position at the window Silver could see the master sadly bobbing his head. “Not so little anymore,” he replied. “Don’t forget poor Timmy.” He fell silent, his head bowed in a gesture of grief. Yet, when he looked up again any trace of it was suddenly gone. Instead his face very much reminded Silver of that of the wily old fox. It was a picture he had once seen in an old children’s book and the picture as well as the picture’s title had stuck with him ever since.

“There’s something though that I’ve meant to discuss with you for a while now. What you just said has reminded me of it again,” the master said with a smile. “You just said ‘what Lord Asriel did to _us_ ’. And it wasn’t the first time you did so. It makes me wonder what it has been exactly that he has done to you as well as your dæmon.”

The comment made Silver forget all his resolve to keep some measure of distance between him and Steel. With a mere two wide jumps he was over at Steel’s armchair and he didn’t even bother with the armrest, but instead he leapt straight up onto Steel’s lap.

Steel took it remarkably well, flinching almost unperceptively, and though he tensed up noticeably he nonetheless pulled Silver even closer and started stroking his fur. “No, Master, this is something I’m most certainly not going to discuss with anybody,” he stated.

Silver hadn’t expected anything else from Steel, but it still felt good to hear the words spoken so unambiguously.

The master’s disappointment was evident. Cocking his head to the side, he replied, “Very well, I obviously cannot force you to take me into your confidence, but I feel I should warn you: it is always a warning sign when someone starts fighting with his dæmon. Often something like that is a prelude to a full-fledged mental breakdown.” He sighed and now he looked like nothing more than a worried old man.

A mental breakdown — the words sent a shiver down Silver’s spine and he felt his fur bristle. As if it wasn’t enough that by some process unknown to them they were slowly transforming into one being, no, they were slowly transforming into a _mentally unstable being_.

“Why don’t you start describing exactly what’s been happening in your college, Master?” Steel asked, for the time obviously intent on ignoring the master’s warning.    

 _Good old Steel, always trying to stay on track_ , Silver thought. Leaning slightly back he tried to relax, allowing at least some of the tension to seep out of him. Maybe if he did it right his easing up would also affect Steel, who was still very tense.

The master cleared his throat. “As I told you before, the first incidents practically coincided with your arrival here,” he began. “That was— let me see, three days ago? Yes, three days ago. Actually they began even before you arrived here. There were reports about the first strange sightings, not inside of the library, mind you, no, there were sightings in different buildings — like the refectory and the large lecture hall. The reports came from students and staff alike. They all reported seeing a figure, the translucent and shimmering shape of a man or at least of something that looked like a man, though not completely like a man. The reports were a bit unclear. Those were the first incidents, though I understood the possible connection to the others only afterwards.” He paused, looking at Steel questioningly.

Steel nodded. “Go on,” he said.

“Then the heating in the library’s smaller hall went offline. There’s nothing wrong with the heating itself, you see, but the hall stays cold nonetheless.” He sighed in frustration. “That happened the day you arrived here. Our staff tried everything they could think of, but to no avail. The next day, the day after your arrival, those sightings picked up in frequency. Something else had changed now, too. I got two more reports of sightings of the shimmering man, but later in the day there were reports that spoke of something dark, a shadow that seemed to haunt the halls.

“Yesterday was even stranger. The appearances continued, but now the dark ones had markedly increased in frequency. That was why I decided that it might be a good idea to stop Lord Asriel from continuing with those plans he’s made for you.”

“I see,” Steel spoke into the following silence. “What I don’t understand is why you couldn’t order him to simply undo what he had done. If you were suspecting a correlation between our capture and those sightings, why didn’t you order him to stop completely? Surely as Head of Jordan College you should have the necessary power.”

The master heaved another heavy sigh. “Maybe I should have, maybe I would have, but I didn’t. You see at that point all of this seemed strange but more in a curious sort of manner. After all this was before what happened to poor Timmy. It seemed more prudent to simply get you out of that vault instead of risking an open confrontation.”

Silver watched the master closely. He was sure the old man was lying, not all-out, but at least some of his reasoning rang false, and by the way he was now averting Steel’s gaze he was feeling very uncomfortable about it.

Steel seemed to share his suspicions. “That’s either a lie or you’re hiding something. If you want me to get to the cause for all of this, I need to know all the details, Master!” His words rang out sharply in the room, causing the master to visibly shrink into his armchair.

“Alright, there’s no need to shout,” the master answered, spreading his hands in a placating gesture. “There might have been another reason for me to wait, but I can’t tell you why. I’ve given my word you see? It has nothing to do with these most recent events, so it’s really of no consequence.” He was staring straight at Steel while he spoke. Even if that wasn’t a sure indicator that he was telling the truth, it appeared as if it would have to be enough. The way the master’s mouth had clamped shut after his last words made it less than likely that he would tell them anything else of value about his motives.

“What about today?” Steel asked. Once again he seemed to follow Silver’s own line of thought as he wasn’t insisting on the point but willing to move on.

“Yes, today—” For a long moment the master stared blankly at his feet. “Today poor Timmy was found in the library,” he continued, his voice infinitely sad. ”You should have seen our librarian’s face when she stormed into our meeting. I had just informed our colleagues about the ‘guest’ I had invited to stay with us for a while when she came in, shivering all over her body, her face white as snow.

“I had planned to talk to Lord Asriel afterwards, but of course other things took precedence then. Someone else must have told him about you and your whereabouts I assume.” He looked at Steel, his face ashen, his eyes full of regret. “And that’s it. You know what’s happened afterwards.”

Silver almost felt sympathy for the man, but it didn’t assuage his lingering suspicions. Turning around, he looked up at Steel, and raising himself slightly on his legs, Silver whispered to him, “Ask him about the infirmary. Ask him about the doctor and Lord Asriel. Something is going on between these two, something we need to know about.”

Steel looked at him out of narrowed eyes and with an expression that was far from being pleased. Regardless Steel repeated his words, turning them into a question.

“Doctor Moran?” the master asked back in surprise. “No I don’t believe that the two of them have been working together, though I’m not sure what exactly his lordship has told him about you. The doctor denied any knowledge, though he was quite persistent in his warnings about someone he has diagnosed as obviously deranged. He described the obvious signs of your fight with your dæmon in vivid detail. After the trick you pulled on him with the statue he was completely beside himself, of course.” The master looked very serious. “I’m afraid you’ve not made a friend there. Quite the contrary, the doctor was quite adamant that it might be in everyone’s best interest to lock you up. Just for your own safety, as he said.”

“Wonderful,” Silver couldn’t help but mutter under his breath.

“So, the doctor’s only peripherally involved,” Steel concluded. He fell silent for a while. Then he spoke up again, “I can’t say that I completely understand what’s going on here. It appears that you’re suffering an infestation of apparitions. It seems clear that there is a connection to our own arrival here, or more precisely to our capture and change. That can’t be the whole answer though, because as you say, the first incidents happened even before we came here. Unless something’s very wrong with causality those can’t have been effects of our presence.” He paused, his expression thoughtful. “This is obviously escalating,” he said at last.

The master nodded at that. “I agree. I promise I’ll be lending you any help you need, but today it’s too late to start. I would recommend first some dinner and then a good night’s rest. We can start fresh in the morning. What do you say?”

Silver looked from one man to the other. While he felt an urgency to begin immediately, he was also very aware how exhausted Steel was. He wasn’t surprised when he saw Steel nodding, hesitantly agreeing to the master’s proposition.


	13. Interlude

He was roaming the nightly precinct, feeling confused and lost. He didn’t understand what was happening. Everything had seemed straightforward enough at first. He had done what Lord Asriel had asked of him. Now, however, it seemed as if their whole house of carefully constructed plans and ideas was coming tumbling down around them.

Something was hunting the college’s premises, something new and dangerous.

He didn’t understand its nature and he didn’t understand its motives. All he knew was that he felt compelled and repulsed by it in almost equal parts. Like a moth around a flame he had danced around this something, this new entity that was roaming the college halls and buildings in very much the same manner as he had done himself.

There had been only one logical course of action. He had tried to confront this entity. He had searched for it and finally cornered it the previous morning.

The confrontation had taken place in the library, the very spot around which everything seemed to revolve lately. The result of that confrontation had been devastating. Somehow a human had gotten in their way and as a result a life had been taken, not by conscious intent, but as far as he could tell by simple coincidence. Or was there a pattern, a hidden plan he didn’t see?

Events were fast spinning out of control and he seemed utterly helpless to stop what felt like a rising tide.


	14. Steel

Waking up the next morning almost felt like routine to Steel. For a while he lay motionless, his eyes still closed. Drawing deep and calm breaths, he listened inwards, cataloguing every physical sensation his body was sending back to him. It was a new experience, something he had never done before.

He felt pleasantly warm. Both his mind and his body were relaxed. The headache that had plagued him for most of the last day was only a distant memory. The discrepancy was slightly jarring, but his sense of relief was far more predominant than his puzzlement of how one’s state of being could be changed so completely by simply being unconscious for a while. Thinking back to yesterday’s events he was more than a little baffled by his own as well as Silver’s actions and reactions towards each other. In hindsight it seemed embarrassingly irrational how they had behaved.

He noticed with some surprise that an even warmer, smaller and decidedly furrier body was pressed to his side. He was certain that he had fallen asleep alone in his bed. After dinner with the master he and Silver had retired to their room; they hadn’t spoken with each other though. Instead he had gone into the lavatory, an experience that had been partly enlightening and partly disturbing. When he had returned into the guest-room, his dæmon had sat on the window sill, staring out into the rapidly falling dawn and with a shrug of his shoulders Steel had decided that Silver’s mood swings really weren’t his problem. He had gone to bed and had instantly fallen asleep.

Sometime during the night Silver must have found his way into Steel’s bed. Today with him feeling much better than yesterday and the sun streaming through the window, bathing the whole room in its friendly golden light, the sight of his dæmon at his side made him feel even more content than he had upon waking.

He grinned and reaching out, he softly stroked over Silver’s white chest and belly, intending to tickle him into wakefulness. It worked beautifully, and with a silly squealing sound, Silver jerked awake.

For a long moment they stared at each other. Steel was fascinated by the amber-yellow of Silver’s eyes. He wondered if it was the different lighting or if he had just been shamefully unobservant so far, but right now those eyes felt like one of the most beautiful things he’d ever seen.

 _They would make a startling and striking contrast to Sapphire’s blue,_ he thought idly. Aloud he said, “Good morning,” and couldn’t help but yawn.

“Good morning,” Silver replied. He sat up and, eyeing Steel somewhat suspiciously, he added, “You’re in a much better mood today.”

Steel sat up, too. He smiled, combing his hair back from over his eyes. Briefly he wondered if he should apologise for yesterday, but rejected the idea immediately as irrelevant. Instead he said lightly, “And why shouldn’t I be? I’ve had a good night’s sleep, I know there’s a good breakfast not too far ahead in the immediate future, but most importantly, Silver — I feel that we’re finally back in business. We have an investigation to conduct and I can’t wait to get on with it.” _And once we’ve solved this mystery we’ll find a way to return home_ , he thought to himself, _and then everything will finally return to the way it was before._

***

True to his words he and Silver were out in the college’s main courtyard less than an hour and a very hasty breakfast later. Together with the master Steel had determined the most promising angles of his investigation. Now it was time to follow them up.

“I think I’d like to speak with the librarian first. She’s been witness to at least two sightings and she has been there when the boy was discovered,” he said. He was a bit disappointed when there was no immediate reply from Silver. The mood between them had seemed to be far less conflicted than yesterday. Silver had even laughed out loud at Steel’s only subtly exaggerated problems with getting into the clothes the master had kindly lent him.

Now, however, his dæmon was sitting rather listlessly on the ground, and a good distance away from Steel. He seemed to have lapsed back into a grumpy silence and so far each of Steel’s attempts to either lure him up onto Steel’s shoulder or into a conversation had been adamantly ignored.

“This is ridiculous,” he said, finally giving up. “What’s the matter with you, Silver?”

Silver gave him another silent look and Steel was almost sure that would remain to be the only answer, but then Silver relented. He came over to Steel and while he still refused another attempt of Steel’s to pick him up, he at least spoke to him.

“How are you feeling?”

Steel frowned at the question. “Why do you ask?”

Silver seemed indecisive how to answer, his hands flicking over the tail he’d pulled into his lap. Finally he said, “At the risk of repeating myself, I still think that giving into the changes that are happening to us is dangerous, Steel. You are no more a human than I am a dæmon, and the willingness with which you seem to embrace all this is scaring me.”

It might have been not the wisest move, but at hearing those words and getting a clear sense of the accompanying emotions, Steel simply couldn’t resist. Leaning down, he picked Silver up, ignoring his dæmons half-hearted struggling. “You’re still not getting it, don’t you?” he asked. “Whatever you might think. I _have_ listened to you. I understand the danger. I simply don’t see another way of dealing with it than to make certain that this _experience_ we’re sharing will be as short as possible.” He felt a slight urge to shake Silver, just for emphasis and to finally get the idea into his dæmon’s head that he had no intention of submitting to this any more than was strictly necessary.

Silver sighed. Squirming slightly, he turned in Steel’s arms so he could look up at him.  “You’re certainly making a good point, but—” he began.

“No buts! This is difficult enough as it is. To be frank I have neither the time nor the energy to deal with your doubts. Really, Silver. It’s quite unlike you to indulge in this kind of wallowing in self-pity.” His choice of words was meant to shake Silver out of his listlessness and by the indignant hiss and the way his dæmon was staring at him now, he had succeeded admirably.

“Well, one thing certainly hasn’t changed too much about you, Steel. You’re still the same coldly calculating and efficient tyrant you’ve always been!” Silver practically spat at him.

Though he appeared to be all outward anger, Steel could easily sense some well hidden and slightly disgruntled amusement coming from Silver, so he only raised one eyebrow in mock disapproval. “You want to get down again?” he asked, making the question sound like a challenge. It felt like no small victory when Silver pulled himself up on Steel’s shoulder instead.

When they reached the library, they discovered that the porter they had met the other day was still on guard duty. He had moved his position to the front of the building, most likely deeming it a far safer place for himself than the building’s inside. The master had informed Steel that the library was closed until further notice, but that the master had instructed the staff to lend him all the assistance he needed.

Giving the porter a polite nod, he asked, “Is the librarian inside?”

“Yes, sir,” the porter replied and with a strong push, he held the door courteously open for Steel to step through.

Inside a heavy silence reigned. The walls, dressed in dark wood, gave the entrance hall and adjoining corridors an almost sinister appearance. That changed, however, once he stepped through the doorway leading into the main reading hall. Here the large overhead windows let in so much sunlight that the hall seemed to be brimming with it.

The librarian was standing in front of a large row of filing cabinets. She was obviously in the process of cataloguing books and Steel took the time to study the woman’s profile for a moment.

She was a frail looking individual. The way she stood, slightly hunched over the cabinet’s drawers, with her robe loosely hanging from her shoulders, she almost looked like an apparition herself and not just a witness of them.

Steel cleared his throat, not wanting to startle the woman with too sudden an appearance, though he almost immediately wondered where that thought might have come from. Normally he wouldn’t have cared much about the woman’s comfort. Still, it couldn’t hurt to be courteous, he decided.

“If I might have a moment of your time?” he asked and, yes, he seemed to have an unusually philanthropic streak today.

The librarian looked up from her work and gave him a curious look that belied her worn down features. “Yes?” she asked. “What can I do for you, young man?”

The phrase made Steel smirk. “The master has asked me to look into those strange happenings that seem to have befallen the college lately. He has told me that you’re one of the best witnesses. I need as precise a description as possible. I hope you can help me with that,” he answered.

The librarian’s face lit up at those words. Pointing to one of the reading tables she said, “Certainly. Why don’t we sit down and I tell you everything I know.”

“I’d prefer it if we could go into the other hall,” Steel objected politely. “I’d like to study that room again while you can tell me what you know.” He saw the librarian’s face crumple, but when he started to walk towards the large archway that led to the smaller hall, the woman followed him albeit a bit hesitantly.

“What exactly do you want to know?” she asked.

“The master told me that before the incident with the boy you’ve been witness to at least two apparitions. Is that true?”

“Oh, yes. The first one happened in the main hall four days ago. I had already closed the library for the evening and was just in the process of shutting the overhead windows. I was looking up and there it was — the shimmering form of a man, a very tall man that seemed to be hovering in the air. He was almost completely translucent; there was only the faintest glimmering around the contours that made me notice him at all.” The librarian took a deep breath. She looked at Steel, her eyes full of almost childlike wonder. “I think it was an angel, though I’ve never seen one before,” she said in a hushed voice.

“And the second apparition?” Steel prompted, for the moment ignoring the librarian’s last comment. He was walking along the aisle towards the spot where the statue had been standing the last day.

“That one was completely different. It happened two days ago and once again after I had already closed down the library. I had stayed later than usual that day. One of our junior scholars had created an awful mess when he had dropped a whole stack of folios. They were in desperate need of sorting and so I stayed behind and saw to it. I was over in the second hall that evening and I was walking through the middle aisle when it felt as if something was touching me from behind. It was a gruelling sensation, like a touch of ice-cold hands, and then I saw it: a dark shadow, but only visible out of the corner of my eye, nothing more. It wasn’t near enough to have actually touched me, so I assume I’ve just felt its emanations. That was enough, however, to scare me half to death.” With a shiver the librarian fell silent.

On his shoulder Steel could feel Silver twitch. “That sounds awfully like the experience I had on the day we arrived here,” he whispered excitedly. “Although I didn’t see anything, neither an angel nor a shadow.”

Steel only nodded. He had reached the exact spot where the statue had been that had given him such a nasty shock the first time he had touched it and that now stood in the infirmary, unresponsive and silent like any other statue. He concentrated, hoping to sense anything, glimpse anything that would give him a clue on what might have happened here. He sensed nothing, though if that was because there wasn’t anything to sense or because he wasn’t equipped with the necessary senses, he didn’t know. Either way it was frustrating.

“Take a good look around,” he muttered to Silver. “See if you can find anything of interest.” Reaching up he gave his dæmon a little push and watched him jump off and up on one of the bookshelves just as he had done the first time they had been in this hall.

Turning towards the librarian, Steel said, “Is there anything you can tell me about the boy-turned-statue?”

The librarian stared at him with eyes full of sadness. She shook her head. “Nothing more than I’ve already told you. The boy spent the morning alone in this hall. He was doing some research and I believe he liked that he had the hall to himself. I checked on him once, but I was occupied with some research of my own, so I left him to his own devices afterwards. Then the screaming started and when we rushed over to see what was happening, we found him as you have seen him yourself — turned into a statue.” Again she shook her head. She pulled out a chair at a nearby reading table and sat down.

Steel looked around, trying to see how Silver was getting along. Curiously enough he was perched on top of one of the bookshelves nearby. Beside him sat the librarian’s dæmon, the brown owl that had so attentively tried to soothe the distraught woman the other day. Steel wondered what the two dæmons were talking about. For some reason he found the image of the two, sitting side by side, their heads tilted towards each other, slightly disturbing. Snapping his fingers, he gestured for Silver to come back down to him. He was somewhat mollified when Silver followed his call without so much as the slightest hesitation.

There wasn’t much to be gained by staying around any further and so he said his goodbyes to the librarian and left the building.

***

Once outside he looked around the courtyard. It was bustling with college life now as students were hurrying over it on their way to classes. He wanted to talk to Silver, but he felt uncomfortable doing so here and he also didn’t want to return to the master’s rooms. He stopped one of the students hurrying past. “Is there someplace a bit quieter around here?”

The boy looked at him with an expression that seemed to question his sanity, yet he pointed towards the courtyard’s far side corner. Following the boy’s pointing finger, Steel could spot a small passageway there that vanished between two buildings. He nodded his thanks and walked towards it, wondering where it may lead.

Walking through the small passageway he soon found himself standing at the entrance of a small garden. Slightly overgrown patches and untamed bushes and small trees gave it a wild look. On three sides it was surrounded by college buildings while a river made up the fourth.  In a small central square of the garden he could see two park benches. Steel walked over to them and sat down on one of them, letting Silver climb down onto the bench’s backrest.

“What do you make of it?” Steel asked, turning slightly so he could face Silver.

Cocking his head to the side, his dæmon silently looked at him for a while. “You’re asking me? That’s certainly a surprise.”

“I don’t see why it should,” Steel answered with a frown.

“Steel, so far you have asked for my opinion not even once since we’ve arrived here.”

Silver’s words irritated him. It irritated him even more that he honestly couldn’t tell if the accusation was true, for an accusation it clearly was. So much had occurred in the last days and for the most part his attention had been focused on understanding what was happening with them and around them, as well as attempting to stay slightly ahead of events. Admittedly his success had been rather limited, but that was mostly a result of their unique circumstances and certainly not a shortcoming of his. Analysing the working dynamics between him and Silver hadn’t been a priority for him, and why should they have been. He was far more concerned with protecting them than anything else. Between the two of them that was clearly his duty.

Still staring at him, Silver rolled his eyes. “Oh, Steel, just forget it. As you said, you have neither the time nor the energy. Believe me, I understand that, probably even better than you do yourself. Nonetheless it’s nice you’ve not _completely_ forgotten that I _am_ a highly trained specialist and not just your trained pet.”

The sharpness of Silver’s words was unmistakable and Steel surprised himself by hurriedly agreeing. “Of course you’re more than a trained pet, Silver.” He reached out, but then thought better of it. He had come dangerously close to tugging at Silver’s tail, but in light of their current subject that gesture might have easily lead to unfortunate results.

“So, what are your thoughts?” he asked again.

“I don’t understand why there are two different apparitions. It seems to complicate matters unnecessarily. I mean shouldn’t one be enough?”

“Maybe they are both results of what Lord Asriel did to us,” Steel suggested.

“Oh, come on Steel. Are you trying to play the simpleton now, just to make me feel better?” Silver asked. When Steel didn’t immediately reply, he added, “I’m sure you haven’t forgotten that the first apparition— what did the librarian call it?  Ah, yes, an angel. You haven’t forgotten that the angel appeared a whole day before we first set foot into this college.”

No, Steel hadn’t exactly forgotten, not completely at least. It just seemed that he had misplaced the fact for a while which had caused him to jump to a false conclusion. He wondered, if it might be a side-effect of being human. It was a worrying thought.

“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again,” he told Silver. He noticed that his admission was greeted by another wave of startled suspicion from Silver. To prevent any further rebukes he added hastily, “So, we have an angel who was here before us, a shadow that first appeared after we arrived here, and something is turning students into statues. Where is that leading us, Silver?”

Silver gave him another of his long and silent looks before he answered, “I’m afraid, it’s leading us straight back to Lord Asriel.”


	15. Silver

Arriving at the conclusion that it was high time to confront Lord Asriel hadn’t exactly felt like a masterpiece of deductive logic to Silver. It was rather obvious that a lot of what was happening seemed to revolve around the lord and the two of them. Returning to him now was the only logical choice if they wanted to make any progress. The tricky part would be to find a way that wouldn’t involve the risk of them ending up in a cage again.

It was all well and good that the master had promised them that his lordship wouldn’t resort to any untoward methods, but Silver wasn’t too convinced those reassurances. He felt that it was far more advisable to rely on their own strength and cunning than the master’s.

He hadn’t been too enthusiastic when Steel had announced that they should probably first check in with the old man instead of attempting to seek out Lord Asriel on their own. Silver had said so, but as it had turned out the short interlude of Steel actively seeking his opinion had already come to an end once again, because Silver’s objection about this course of action had been pushed aside rather thoughtlessly.

***

They found the master in his rooms, just getting ready for lunch in the college’s refectory. He reacted with considerable trepidation when he heard of Steel’s intention to confront Lord Asriel.

“I admit I had feared as much, but do you really believe that it is _him_ who is behind all this?” he asked, standing in front of Steel, wringing his hands in a gesture that clearly spoke of his inner turmoil. “I mean, what reason could there be for him to do such a horrible thing to one of our students?” he exclaimed.

Steel looked over to Silver who was sitting nearby on the master’s desk. Then he shrugged his shoulders. “I think it is safe to assume that it wasn’t supposed to happen like this,” he answered.

The master sighed. “Yes, yes, of course. Well, I expect I should accompany you then,” he said, carefully buttoning up his robe.

Steel shook his head. “No, I think it would be better if I talked to him alone. He might be more inclined towards talking to me than he might be talking to you.”

At that the master almost laughed out loud. Giving Steel an incredulous look, he replied with a chuckle, “You really think so? It was you, after all, who slipped right through his fingers.”

“That might be so, but it was _you_ who made certain that he couldn’t simply drag us back and it is you who ultimately has to deal with the boy’s death and be the judge of Lord Asriel’s role in all of this,” Steel retorted.

The master nodded hesitantly. “I see your point, but I still think it’s better if it’s me that arranges a meeting between him and you this afternoon. I’m going to see him at lunch now.” He fell silent for a moment, a thoughtful expression on his face. “I believe it would be wise to arrange a more public setting for this meeting than his rooms in the Palmerian tower, don’t you think?”

Steel seemed reluctant. “I agree, but whatever you come up with, don’t forget that we shouldn’t have to deal with others being able to overhear our conversation. Am I right in assuming that the true reasons for our presence here is still a secret only shared between the three of us?” He waited and at the master’s nod, he continued, “So we need a public place that isn’t frequented too much.”

“Why not that little garden?” Silver threw in. When both Steel and the master looked at him, he added. “It’s certainly public enough, but there’s only that one small passageway leading to it, and I don’t think you can be overheard from any of the adjoining buildings’ windows.”

The master expression brightened. “You mean the old herbal garden? Yes, I presume it’s as good a place as any. I’ll see what I can do.” He looked back and forth between Silver and Steel. He flinched when a chiming bell, coming from outside struck the hour. Giving his robes a last, smoothing pat, he said, “Now I really must hurry or I will be late at the table.” He gave them an apologetic look and without waiting for another reply he hurried off and out of his rooms, leaving Steel and Silver behind and to their own devices.

***

Not too long afterwards they heard a discreet knock at the door of the master’s study. When Steel opened it, he was greeted by one of the college’s porters, a very young man they hadn’t seen before.

“The master has sent me to tell you that he has arranged a meeting. He’s set it up for four o’clock this afternoon in the garden you have spoken about,” he said. “I’ve been told to make certain that there are no other visitors at the time, which really shouldn’t be a problem, Sir, because that garden isn’t very popular.” He grinned slightly and scratched his head. “Anyway, Sir, I’m going to keep watch at the garden’s entranceway and I’ve also been told to make certain that you arrive safely back here afterwards.” He fell silent, giving Steel a look that was both curious and sly.

Maybe it was the fact that Steel didn’t respond immediately, because he added cockily, “You know, Sir, me, I can certainly understand that you’d like to be cautious around his lordship.” Leaning slightly forward, and continuing in a hushed voice, he added, “After all, he has killed before, if you know what I mean.” The eye-roll he let his words follow hinted at a whole world of further rumours he might know.

Silver, who had taken up his usual residence on Steel’s shoulder when the knocking had interrupted them, was instantly curious. This would be a good opportunity to gain more information about Lord Asriel he thought.

To his utter surprise and disappointment Steel didn’t seem to share that assessment. He only answered with a curt, “Very well, I’ll be there,” and shut the door.

“Steel!” Silver exclaimed. “Why didn’t you follow that up? Don’t you think it might have been interesting to hear more about Lord Asriel and whoever it was he has killed before?” With a casual jump down onto the master’s large desk he left Steel’s shoulder and then preceded him back into the living room.

“Why should I? We can always ask the master later. I’m sure he’s a more reliable source than that young man would have been,” Steel answered. He moved over to the armchair he’d been sitting in earlier.

Silver followed him, jumping up onto the chair’s armrest. “That might be,” he conceded. “But the question is how much information the master will be willing to give us if you ask him about his lordship. So far he has been rather tight lipped about anything pertaining himself, Lord Asriel, and their relationship and past.”

Steel sat down. Sighing heavily he looked at Silver, an annoyed expression on his face. The feelings that Silver could sense seemed from him seemed to be more anxious than anything else, however. It was puzzling. “What’s the matter with you?” he asked cuatiously.

Steel only shook his head in response. “Nothing to concern you,” he replied and suddenly turning brusque once again, he added, “If you think it’s so important to gather more background information about Lord Asriel or the master, why don’t you go out and question that porter yourself?”

Silver couldn’t help but scoff at the sheer ridiculousness of the suggestion. He saw Steel’s expression darken at the sound.

Steel sighed again, “Fine, tell me what I’ve overlooked this time,” he said, sounding mostly resigned now.

Silver bit back the more cutting remark he had already formulated in his mind. Instead he said, “I can’t go out on my own, Steel, and there are two very good reasons for that. For one, that’s not the way a dæmon behaves. They don’t go around chatting up strange people. They wouldn’t even talk to someone who hasn’t been formally introduced to them. As you might have noticed, I have neither addressed Lord Asriel or the master by myself so far.” He paused and gave Steel a scrutinising look. This was a topic he had wanted to bring up earlier. Steel had questioned his silence in the company of other people more than once and Silver had begun to suspect that he had a completely wrong impression as to Silver’s reasons for behaving the way he had.

“Why do you think, I haven’t done that, Steel?” he asked.

Steel looked back at him warily, as if he was suspecting the question to be some kind of test. “I thought it was a result of your troubles to cope with your changed form,” he said cautiously.

Silver shook his head, barely suppressing another sigh of frustration. “No, I’m simply following the conventions this form and this world place on me. It would cause suspicion if I would start acting too independently, if I would start to wander around on my own. But most importantly — and that brings me to the second reason why I can’t leave — wandering around on my own is a physical impossibility.”

Steel’s reaction didn’t come unexpected and so he wasn’t surprised at the look of incomprehension that appeared on Steel’s face the second Silver had finished. He decided not to wait until Steel would come up with his next question. “As we are right now, we can’t separate for more than a several yards or so. Trying a greater distance would be extremely painful for both of us. It might also cause severe mental stress and possible trauma, possibly causing irreversible damage to both of us.”

Steel stared at him with an expression close to shock. “Why didn’t you tell me about that earlier?” he asked incredulously, his question sounding more like an accusation than anything else. He got up from the armchair and started to pace in front of the fireplace.

Silver watched him closely. He was stertled that this bit of information had such a strong effect on Steel, especially after he had adopted such an air of pragmatic acceptance only a little while earlier when they had been on their way to talk to the librarian. “There were other things that seemed more important actually,” he replied. “It isn’t such a major weakness as you might think. It’s true that we have to stay together, but Steel, we would have done that regardless and if you’re worried someone could use it against us, think again. This is a governing principle of _all_ humans and their dæmons. Separating a human from their dæmon is as much a taboo as touching another one’s dæmon.”

Sometime during Silver’s explanation Steel had stopped in his pacing. He had stood very still, listening to Silver attentively, obviously intent on understanding what exactly this new information could mean for them. Now he came back to the armchair and sat down again.

“I had planned to meet with Lord Asriel on my own,” he finally said.

 _Oh, of course. That certainly explains why he’s so upset_ , Silver thought. Reaching out he placed his hand on Steel’s arm. “I appreciate your intention to protect me, but even without the physical necessity to stay together I would very much prefer to be with you than to stay behind on my own.”

Steel took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, looking tiredly at Silver. He didn’t answer.

Later Silver couldn’t say what exactly had driven him to act the way he did next. All he knew was that looking at Steel and seeing him look so pensive, he suddenly felt the desperate urge to do something to change the mood of frustration that seemed to have overcome Steel. Silver chittered loudly, the sound startling them both. Prior to this, Silver had no idea he could make such noises and by the look of surprise on Steel’s face, the raised eyebrows, the slightly opened mouth, neither had Steel.

It wasn’t enough though, not nearly enough to make his point. Drawing back his lips he gave Steel a toothy snarl, then jumped up onto the chair’s headrest. Another, wider jump sent him over to the fireplace mantle. He ran across its rim, jumped again and, though it was a close call, managed to grab hold of the other armchair’s headrest, pulling himself up on it, giving another even louder chitter. He looked back at Steel and saw that he had definitely managed to draw Steel’s attention.

“Silver?” Steel asked perplexed.

Silver didn’t answer immediately, but instead he jumped down to the floor, moved over to Steel again and pulled himself up onto the chair’s armrest. “I might be smaller than usual, Steel, but I’m not entirely without resources,” he answered, giving Steel another good view of his teeth.

Steel looked at him with astonishment, then he smiled. “It’s certainly good to see at least some of your usual spirit back.” Reaching out, he playfully tugged at Silver’s tail.

Silver batted at the encroaching hand and with a tug of his own managed to rescue his tail. “Stop that, you fool,” he chided, half mocking, half out of honest indignation. Steel seemed to have developed a peculiar fondness for pulling at his tail. Silver wasn’t quite sure what to make out of it.


	16. Steel

They hadn’t accomplished much so far, Steel thought while he and Silver slowly made their way across the lively college main courtyard, heading for the garden to meet with Lord Asriel.

Most of the afternoon he’d spent in more or less idle conversation with Silver. After his startling revelation about yet another strange aspect of their new identity they had settled on less disconcerting subjects. They had in fact spent a rather pleasant afternoon with Silver happily chatting about all the trivialities he knew about this world and Steel had let him. From there they had drifted back to their current situation and the investigation they had begun yesterday.

At some point tea had arrived, brought in by someone from the college’s serving staff and with compliments of the master. It had only been then that Steel had realised how hungry he was, having missed lunch earlier. He had wolfed down the sandwiches and this time he hadn’t even found it too irritating that Silver was watching him with fascination.

Finally it had been time to get on their way and they had left the master’s rooms in order to make it to their meeting.

***

“I’m curious in what mood the lord will be,” Silver said now. He was trotting beside Steel, having forgone his favourite place on Steel’s shoulder for a while, so he could walk on the grass. He seemed very alert, craning his head here and there, making sure to take everything in that was happening around them.

“Let’s hope he’s reasonable. Otherwise this might turn out to be nothing but a waste of time,” Steel muttered back.

Arriving at the entrance to the small passageway, they entered it and were greeted by the young porter who nodded at Steel, saying “Sir, Lord Asriel just arrived. He’s waiting for you, Sir.”

Acknowledging the man with a slight nod of his own, Steel wordlessly went past him. Stepping out into the garden, he stopped and paused until he felt Silver’s hands tugging on his leg. He picked him up, swinging him onto his shoulder. For the upcoming confrontation it would be best to stay as close together as possible. Even if he didn’t expect any sort of physical fight, it felt safer this way.

He decided to take his time studying the garden and its layout more closely than the last time they’d been here. It covered a square made up by buildings on three sides and the river on the fourth. There were large hedges lining the paths that led to the garden’s centre were a group of trees and the two benches stood. Lord Asriel was waiting there, standing with his back turned towards them as if he was studying the river. Again Steel took in the layout and condition of the garden, the clear signs of neglect, the hedges that could use a trim and the former patches that were mostly overgrown with a multitude of flowers, grass and weeds.

Following one of the paths leading to the garden’s centre, Steel slowly started walking towards it. At the sound of his footsteps he saw Lord Asriel turn, but his face was closed, giving away no clue as to his current mood. Steel felt Silver shift on his shoulder, his hands clutching at Steel’s hair and the cloth of his jacket. Steel understood his nervousness. They hadn’t met with the man since he had barged in on Steel’s breakfast, shouting threats at them, laying down a very clear ultimatum that they hadn’t heeded. There was no telling how he would react to them now.

Slowing down he stepped into the garden’s centre square and stopped, still standing a few feet away from the lord, giving him a questioning look. In return Lord Asriel took his time studying him and Silver very carefully. While his expression remained mostly unreadable, Steel thought he could make out a faint flicker of curiosity, lurking in the man’s gaze. The silence between them lengthened until it became uncomfortable, yet Steel wouldn’t be the one to break it first.

“You have forfeited any chance of ever making it back to your own world. You’re aware of that, I presume,” Lord Asriel finally said. He turned and walked to the bench behind him and sat down, casually crossing his legs. His dæmon followed him and lay down at his feet.

Steel considered sitting down on the other bench that stood opposite the first but the two were too far apart for any reasonable conversation and he couldn’t very well keep standing. He followed the lord’s example and sat down beside him, though he made certain to keep ample space between them. He turned to his side so that he was facing the lord, pulling one leg up and under himself, and flinging one arm carelessly over the bench’s backrest. He felt Silver leave his shoulder and move over onto the bench’s backrest, too. He stayed as close to Steel as possible.

“I remember your ultimatum,” Steel answered calmly. “But I believe we’re both more than aware that the most recent developments have rendered it rather meaningless.” Studiously avoiding eye contact with the other man, he turned slightly and, reaching up, he started to idly play with Silver’s tail. He was almost sure that Silver’s answering look was full of carefully suppressed indignation, and he couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth, regardless of their current situation.

“You think this is funny?” Lord Asriel’s question was more a growl than clearly articulated words.

It made the hairs at Steel’s nape rise, but he kept up his calm façade. Looking back at the lord he said, “Oh, I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, but it’s quite clear that whatever you did to _me_ , had some rather unfortunate consequences that resulted not only in some strange sightings, but in the death of a college student. You _are_ aware that it was your manipulation that caused his death, aren’t you?” he asked as casually as before. He felt the urge to hold his breath. This was the crucial point. Either Lord Asriel would admit his involvement now, or he would deny everything. He and Silver had a lengthy discussion about this, if Steel should confront the man right at the start or if it would be better to slowly ease the human into making the admission. They had quickly agreed on the direct strategy as the better choice.

Lord Asriel stared at him with something that came very close to open scorn. “You are so clever, aren’t you?” he asked. It was obviously a rhetorical question. Suddenly he turned around, moving a good deal closer, mirroring Steel’s position and cornering him at his side of the bench. “You elementals — always such an arrogant breed — knowing all, but always too aloof to share any of that knowledge. So, perhaps I have caused this, but maybe it is your own fault. Have you considered that? It is entirely possible. After all, your powers far exceed anyone else’s, don’t they? He was leaning ever closer during his succession of speculations and questions until there were mere inches left between their faces.

“In fact, how should I know that it wasn’t you who deliberately caused the poor boy’s death?” he snarled. “I assume you didn’t think much of it, committing murder just to have a convenient means to put pressure on me. After all, it’s not as if your kind has shown too much consideration for humans. We both know that in carrying out your so-called _assignments_ your people have more than once wittingly allowed humans to get into harm’s way.

Steel sat rigidly still and refrained from leaning back, but he had a hard time doing so. He waited until Lord Asriel had finished before he remarked drily, “Right now, those powers of mine that you hold in such high acclaim are not even worth mentioning. You know that very well since it was you who took them away.” Even as he spoke he saw the lord’s eyes narrowing while a slight smirk started to play around his mouth. That wouldn’t do, Steel decided, and so he added in a far sharper tone, “Trying to lay the blame on me now seems rather childish, don’t you think?”

Lord Asriel jerked back as if he’d been slapped in the face, but he caught himself almost immediately. Instead of the utter fury Steel had halfway expected he turned very calm and even amused. Steel had no idea where that emotion had risen from.

Giving Steel a look of pleased arrogance, he commented at last, “For someone who presents himself as being so powerless you’re amazingly insolent, not exactly a wise choice of behaviour.” He chuckled softly. “Alright, why don’t we stop this idle banter and move to the really important matters.”

Steel drew a deep breath, his hope rising once again. It almost seemed as if this could actually work. At least his allegations hadn’t been outright refused. Now what he needed to accomplish was to get Lord Asriel to explain what exactly he had done and under which circumstances. Steel was sure that if he had all the relevant information they would be able to determine what had caused the recent series of events. He also felt confident that once he had that knowledge he would be able to find means to revert his and Silver’s own transformation. Lord Asriel’s next words, however, once again shattered his rising hopes.

“So,” the lord said casually, “let us discuss my conditions, shall we?”

“Conditions?” Steel replied incredulously. “You’re not seriously considering using your knowledge as leverage against me, are you?”

Lord Asriel simply smiled in return.

“Someone has died!” Steel felt compelled to point out again.

“Yes, very tragic. Now, shall we start talking about those important matters?”

Steel felt ready to strike him down. He didn’t though. Instead he asked, “What is it you want?”

“As a start I expect you to come back. No more wandering around and playing the college master’s guest.” The answer came far more lightly than its content justified.

“Forget it!” Steel answered instantly and considering the angry hiss coming from Silver his dæmon was backing him up on it unambiguously.

Grabbing Silver and gathering him against his chest, he got to his feet and quickly took several steps away from the bench and its remaining occupant. Turning around he looked back at Lord Asriel. He felt Silver slightly struggling against his chest and he allowed him to pull himself up and onto Steel’s shoulder. With his dæmon safely restored to his favourite spot, Steel turned his attention back to Lord Asriel, who was just now slowly getting up himself.

The lord shook his head slowly, a regretful expression playing over his features. “You’re making it only worse for yourself,” he muttered in a voice that was most likely meant to be conciliatory. “As I’ve said before, in the end you’ll be left with no other option but to come back.”

Steel didn’t even bother to give an answer to that, but simply turned and headed towards the garden’s exit.

***

When they arrived back at the master’s suite they were greeted by its owner. The master looked up from the armchair he was reclining in, holding a glass in his hand with some amber liquid softly shimmering inside. With a hopeful expression he asked, “How did it go?” Yet his face fell at taking a closer look at Steel’s expression.

“It was a disaster,” Steel replied curtly. He allowed Silver to slip from his shoulder, so he could perch on the other chair while Steel made a slight detour to one of the sideboards. He picked up a snifter and poured himself a shot from the carafe standing beside it.

He got an intense feeling of first puzzlement and then disquiet coming from Silver when Steel turned and came over to him and the chair. Steel sat down, wondering what it might be this time that was upsetting Silver so much. He didn’t care enough to ask though.

It wasn’t until he had taken a first mouthful from his glass when the realization hit him together with the breath-taking sharpness of the alcohol. He coughed and swallowed convulsively a few times while he felt Silver’s emotions rapidly segue into incredulity.

Through watering eyes he looked first at Silver then at the master. The latter gave him an astonished smile. “I must say I’m surprised. Seeing an elemental eating and drinking is one thing, but seeing him taking liberties with my finest Brantwijn, that’s certainly a sight I hadn’t expected ever to see.”

Taking another heaving breath Steel put the snifter down. He gave Silver an apologising glance and leaned back again. He thought it best to ignore the subject of alcoholic beverages completely. He decided now would as good a time as any to give a quick summary of the meeting with his lordship. “Lord Asriel still seems to think this is a game and he’s the one who’s holding all the trumps. He wants us to return. Otherwise he refuses to share any knowledge he might possess. He’s also refusing to take any responsibility,” he said. Then he proceeded to narrate the whole conversation. It took him a while, but he discovered that in the master he had a raptly listening audience.

After Steel had finished the master slowly shook his head, muttering softly, “I warned him.” He looked down at the glass in his hands, moving it slowly around, causing the liquid inside to gently rotate and slosh against the inside of the glass. “I told him that with the death of the boy things would need to change.” He sighed deeply. Looking up at Steel he asked in a much louder voice, “What now?”

There were a few more directions they could take to find out more about those apparitions, Steel thought, but he was sure that in the end gaining Lord Asriel’s cooperation would be essential. “I’m going to investigate a few other possibilities, but I think it is time that you bring that pressure into play that you were hinting at the other day,” he said. “It seems as if mere reasoning won’t get us any further with the lord.” For a moment he considered his options while he watched the master nervously bobbing his head in silent acknowledgement.

Having made up his mind, Steel continued, “I’d like to have a look around the college tonight. Can you arrange for someone to accompany me, someone who can get me access to the college’s buildings?”

The master seemed startled for a moment. “Do you mean all of them?” he asked a bit breathlessly. At Steel’s nod he gave him a wide-eyed look, but answered readily enough, “I’ll get young Wilkins to show you around. That’s the young man that stood guard during you’re meeting with Lord Asriel.”

Steel nodded again and rising to his feet he said. “Thank you, Master. I think I’ll retire to my room then. Catching a few hours of sleep beforehand might be the best thing I can do right now.” He picked up Silver from the chair’s armrest and with another polite nod, he left the master alone.


	17. Silver

As surprised as Silver had been by Steel’s announcement that they would go exploring tonight, for the most part it had left him with a feeling of profound satisfaction. Finally they were taking real action, he had thought. This was something that was long overdue, and he was more than happy to see that Steel was finally ready to move forward and quicken the pace.

After they’d retreated to their guest room, they had spent a short while discussing their nightly endeavour. Soon though, Steel had called an end to it and had gone to bed. Silver on the other hand hadn’t felt able to join him. Instead he had taken up watch at the room’s window, just as he had done before, content to wait until it was time to wake Steel up again.

When they left the guest room sometime close to midnight, they were greeted by the sight of a cup of steaming Chocolatl sitting on the dining table along with a note by the master telling them that a porter would wait for them in the main courtyard at midnight sharp. The master had also left them a few floor plans that showed some of the college’s major buildings. Steel took to both — the chocolate and the maps — with a keen enthusiasm and Silver smiled to himself at the sight.

They left the master’s rooms still slightly early, yet when they stepped through the building’s main doors and out into the night, they saw the young man already waiting for them, standing close by the main residential building. He greeted Steel with a nod and a hushed ‘Sir’. He looked nervous, his face almost moonish white in the soft glow of the few scattered lamps that illuminated the main courtyard. His eyes were constantly swivelling from left to right, scanning their surroundings as if he was expecting danger to come from every direction. “Where do you want to start?” he asked when Steel didn’t speak immediately but only answered the porter’s nod with one of his own. He jingled a large bunch of keys he had fastened to his porter uniform’s belt.

Steel looked down at the keys in question. “Tell me, do you have the key to the Palmerian tower amongst those?”

 _Lord Asriel’s tower! What is he thinking?_ Silver barely contained a squeal of astonishment. “Steel, are you out of your mind?” he whispered against his human’s ear. He felt Steel chuckle in response.

“Don’t fuss, Silver,” he whispered back, and Silver could feel his amusement like a heavy and thick flavour coating every other emotion he could sense coming from Steel, who just then turned his head and gave Silver a wink. “It was just a question.”

Silver felt exasperated. He couldn’t believe that Steel had posed the question to simply pull his leg, but it certainly looked that way. He chittered disapprovingly and just for good measure he grabbed a handful of Steel’s hair, giving it a warning tug.

Steel didn’t seem too impressed, but there was a wave of reassuring calm coming from him.

The porter had followed their exchange with open curiosity and something akin to suspicion, though Silver had no idea why the young man should be wary about their exchange. Now the young man answered. “Yes, Sir, I’ve got all the master keys with me. That gives you access to all buildings and rooms, apart from very few exceptions like the bursar’s office for instance.”

Steel nodded. “Then let’s start with the refectory. I’ve been told that’s where the angel apparition was first sighted.”

***

It was a short walk across the courtyard until they stood in front of another of the college’s main buildings. In contrast to the residential buildings behind them this one lay in complete darkness. There wasn’t a single window illuminated.

Unclipping the bunch of keys the porter stepped forward and unlocked the large doors. Then he took a step back and with a rather hopeful gleam in his eyes he asked, “I suppose I’ll wait outside?” At Steel’s nod of assent he gave an audible sigh of relief.

He held out the small anbaric lamp he had brought along and Steel took it, saying, “Make certain that no one enters the building while we’re inside. We’ll stay for an hour I presume.” He stepped forward and with a resolute push he opened the door and strode inside.

***

The building lay in almost complete darkness. Only the pale moonlight and their anbaric lamp were providing a rather sparse illumination, but it was enough for Silver to see. Steel had stopped right after he had stepped through the door. Presumably he was waiting for his eyes to adjust to the thick darkness around them.

It was time for some preliminary exploration Silver decided and shifted to get down from Steel’s shoulder, but a hand closing around his leg stopped him. “Stay with me, Silver,” Steel said softly. Turning his head, Steel looked at him and continued, “Tell me what you see.”

Silver hesitated for a moment. He was almost ready to argue that it would be far more efficient to let him go; that Steel could just make do with the limited abilities he had, but then he thought better of it and kept quiet, not for the first time wondering where that thought had even come from. It wasn’t like him to be so uncaring. Instead of leaving he did as Steel had asked him and began describing their surroundings, “This is obviously the entrance hall. I can see nothing of interest here. There are several display cases lined up along the walls and two doors directly opposite from us that lead to the kitchens. There are two large stairways, leading up to the first floor where, as we have seen on the layout plans, the refectory hall itself is situated.”

Steel’s hand let go of his leg, obviously satisfied that Silver’s description meant he would stay with Steel for the time being. “The sightings were in the refectory, so let’s head there directly. We can take a look at the kitchen afterwards,” he said.

They cautiously walked up the stairs and, with only a brief pause on the upper floor’s landing, finally stepped into the refectory. Its doors had already stood open, but it wasn’t clear if that was a sign of negligence or of something darker, something more sinister going on.

The refectory was considerably better lit due to the fact that there were large clerestory windows on both sides of the hall as well as a row of skylights set into the roof. “Steel?” Silver asked. He assumed it wasn’t necessary to give a description here, but maybe Steel wanted him to continue.

Steel only shook his head. He moved along one of the long rows of tables until they stood almost exactly in the middle of the room. Slowly he circled around and Silver was fascinated by the intensity of alertness and curiosity he could feel coming from him. To some extent it felt very much like Steel, although the curiosity part of his presence held a new note, something that Silver had trouble defining. Whatever it was, his own distraction must have clearly transmitted to Steel.

“Stay focused, Silver,” Steel chastised him, breaking the surrounding silence.

Silver flicked his tail in irritation. With a sharp push he jumped from Steel’s shoulder and landed on the nearest table-row, almost upsetting a slender wine glass when he tried to land between the laid out cutlery and dishes.

“Silver! Get back here!” Steel whispered harshly.

“Stop being so over-protective,” Silver shot back, glancing over his shoulder as he slowly proceeded along the table. “It’s far easier concentrating when there’s at least a short distance between us.” At Steel’s disbelieving scoff, he added. “Don’t worry. I’m not likely to wander off too far, remember?”

Steel’s presence remained a slightly worried swirl of emotions at Silver’s back, but he heard Steel’s hesitant footsteps as followed Silver’s progress towards the other side of the hall.

Silver couldn’t sense or see anything out of the ordinary. That wasn’t unexpected, however. So far they had nothing more, but nebulous descriptions of the two different entities they had to deal with. Their ideas why those entities had suddenly appeared here and in other places on the college precinct were rather vague. This was something of a wild stab, a first attempt of hopefully taking a look themselves.

Reaching the other end of the hall, he sped up his pace and jumped over at the master’s table that stood crosswise to the other table-rows and parallel to the end of the hall. Turning around and sitting down, he took in the entirety of the refectory while Steel came up to him. Everything was utterly quiet. The pale moonlight was painting a diffuse pattern of soft shadows all across the hall. There was no sign of another presence beside his own and Steel’s.

He looked up when Steel stopped directly in front of him. Silver saw his hands twitch, but he made no attempt to snatch him up. Instead he asked, “Anything?”

It was only when Silver shook his head in response that Steel held out his hand invitingly, his expression so full of pleading worry that Silver immediately followed suit and allowed Steel to help him up onto his shoulder.

“What now?” Silver asked.

Steel turned around so they were facing the refectory again and leaned back against the table. “I think we should wait and see if anything happens. I still hope that our presence might trigger something,” he answered reluctantly.

There wasn’t much to say to that. They had discussed the possibility that it had been their own presence that had prompted at least some of the recent events. For a while silence descended on both of them. Time seemed to slow to a standstill. This was something that really nagged Silver, the feeling and knowledge that his normally so impeccable sense of time had been ripped away from him along with so much else. Yet this wasn’t the right time for this kind of thought and so he focused his attention back on the hall.

Nothing happened and after they had waited a while longer there was still nothing. With a sigh, Steel finally pulled out a pocket watch he had snatched up from the master’s desk before they had left. “This doesn’t seem to work,” he said.

“Maybe we should wait longer,” Silver threw in, but silently he agreed with Steel.

“No, let’s move to the next location,” Steel replied and Silver didn’t protest.

***

Outside the porter awaited them with an anxious face, but at seeing Steel’s frustrated one he only asked, “Where to next?”

They returned to the main residential building. When he and Steel had discussed their plans for this night they had determined that it would be sensible to check the statue in the infirmary once again. It seemed feasible that whatever had caused the boys grisly transformation might return there, or at the very least it couldn’t hurt to take a look at it.

Just like the refectory the infirmary lay in deep slumber. There were a few things quietly bubbling in the infirmary’s small laboratory, but apart from that everything was deadly silent. Since the infirmary’s rooms had only small windows and it lay on the ground floor it was exceptionally dark here. Silver briefly considered if he should advise Steel to ignore the master’s plea for them to stay as unobtrusive as possible and search for the light switches. Even he had trouble orientating himself here, but as if in response to an advice yet not given Steel raised the anbaric lamp he held as high over his head as possible. The lamp’s light wasn’t particular strong, but since the infirmary was rather small the effect was enough to lighten the place enough for both of them.

They headed directly for the small side room where they had seen the statue the other day. When Steel opened the room’s door, they could see it immediately, standing in the middle of the room just as they had left it. Its futile gesture of rejection, the face frozen in fear, the hands raised to ward off whatever had come for it, felt even more depressing when observed in the middle of the night.

Silver jumped off Steel’s shoulder. This time his move didn’t draw any protest, but he hadn’t expected one. Circling the statue he climbed on the desk behind it and for a while he simply sat there, studying the statue. There was something deeply disturbing about it, and a glance over at Steel showed him that it was having the same disquieting effect on him.

There was more though. He sensed something here, something that felt like a lingering presence, something he hadn’t sensed the day before when they had been here with the master. Probably it had been the other humans’ presence that had masked it, he thought. It was also possible that he simply hadn’t the ability to sense it yesterday. It was entirely possible that he was exercising a dæmonic ability now that he was still developing. How should he know?

“Do you sense it, too?” he asked.

Steel only raised his eyebrows in response, but his face spoke volumes. Obviously he had no idea what Silver was talking about.

Whatever it was, Silver had enough of the experience. Jumping down from the desk again, he returned to Steel. He had only to raise a hand and Steel was already leaning down, eagerly picking him up again.

“I can sense a lingering presence here,” Silver said quietly. “I don’t know if it’s an after-effect of something dark actually being here or if it’s an echo of what happened to the boy, but it feels hard and cold. There’s an evil flavour to it, bitter and acidic.”

Steel remained silent for a moment, then he asked, “You really can’t tell the difference? This is important, Silver.”

“I know that,” Silver returned emphatically. “But it’s really just an echo, nothing very specific.” He turned his head, looking at Steel’s profile.

He saw it then, a shimmer, just out of the corner of his eye, but it sent such an intense spike of fear through him that he actually jerked and almost fell from Steel’s shoulder. “Behind you!” he yelled, even as he felt Steel’s mind respond to him by spiralling into anxiety.

Steel grabbed him, holding him close to his chest and whirling around, he asked back, “What? What is it?”

“A shape,” Silver exclaimed, futilely struggling to get free of Steel’s grip that prevented him from looking himself. “Steel, let me up! I can’t see if you don’t let me go.”

“I can’t see anything,” Steel said. It was probably this lack of any discernible danger that prompted Steel to loosen his grip enough, so that Silver could shift a bit higher, enabling him to see a bit more than Steel’s chest, even if Steel refused to let go of him completely.

“Outside! We have to get outside! What I saw was a shape and it was moving, Steel. It was moving through a wall! It must be outside by now!” He felt frantic to follow whatever it was he had seen. He couldn’t understand why Steel was so slow on the uptake. Intensifying his struggling he finally resorted to his last means and bit into one of the hands that were holding him fast.

Steel dropped him instantly, a curse on his lips that Silver was sure he had never heard from Steel before and most certainly would never have expected to hear from him.

“Come on,” he exclaimed without looking back to see if Steel was following. He was already through the infirmary’s outer door and a good part down the corridor when he felt an unfamiliar and unpleasant pull. He instantly realised what it was. Steel wasn’t keeping up and for the first time now they were skirting the distance of comfort between a human and his dæmon. He stopped briefly, impatiently, but only until he saw Steel appearing in the doorway. “Hurry up,” Silver told him and with an irritated flick of his tail he picked up his pace again, only making sure that they barely stayed close enough together. To his chagrin he discovered that there was no way he could open the heavy door leading out of the building itself and he impatiently looked back at Steel.

Fortunately Steel seemed to have finally grasped the importance of Silver’s sighting, because his pace had hastened to a fast trot. Throwing Silver a dark look, he pulled the door open, allowing Silver to shoot out into the night.

Silver ran a few yards away from the building and then he started to circle, intent on catching any sign of the shape he had spotted in the infirmary. He saw nothing at first. The lamps lining the main walkway were playing havoc with his night vision and he blinked furiously to adjust. He heard Steel slowly stepping closer, but ignored him in favour of searching for any glimpse of the shimmering form. There was still nothing. It felt immeasurably frustrating. This might very well have been their first lead. Now it was gone. He expected Steel to lean down and pick him up at any moment, but when that didn’t happen, Silver finally turned and looked up at him.

Steel looked down in turn, before he slowly kneeled down in front of Silver, but made no attempt at touching him.

 _I’ve bitten him — again. No wonder he’s cautious,_ Silver thought in sudden realization. He couldn’t help but feel the tiniest bit amused at the idea, even though his amusement was paired with a far more sizeable portion of guilt over having done something again that had startled Steel so profoundly the first time, even if Silver had been much more restrained this time, causing far less injury than before.

Steel sighed in response. “This really isn’t funny, Silver,” he said, though he sounded more resigned than chastising. He carefully stretched out his hand and after a moment’s hesitation Silver took it with equal care, finally letting himself be picked up again.

Steel heaved another, even louder sigh. “Now tell me exactly what you have seen.”


	18. Steel

It hadn’t been a particularly successful night, Steel thought over a very late breakfast the next morning. After that strange sighting incident in the infirmary and Silver’s frantic attempts of following whatever it was he had seen, they had decided to check out one last location, but the main lecture hall had turned out to be another blank.

After spending more than an hour there, they still hadn’t seen anything that even remotely resembled the diffusely shimmering shape that Silver had described to him while they had still been on their way to the hall.

“It looked fantastic, Steel,” Silver had excitedly murmured into his ear, while they were following the porter through the courtyard. “Just as the librarian had said it was roughly the size of a very tall human. It’s hard to tell since I could only see its contours.” He had paused, giving a breathless huff. “But the most fascinating thing was that I could swear I saw wings, Steel.”

At those words Steel had felt small fingers digging into his shoulder and grabbing his hair. Turning his head he had looked at Silver. He had seen barely held back delight dancing in his dæmon’s eyes.

“What does that mean?” he had asked Silver, not so much because he really wanted to know at that moment, but simply to keep Silver talking, giving him an outlet for his over boarding energy.

Silver had chittered rapidly before he had answered. “It means that there really _is_ an angel hiding somewhere on the college precinct,” he had said triumphantly.

Steel had been unclear about the actual importance of the discovery, but one look at Silver’s excited features and the liveliness of his mental presence had been enough to deter Steel from any attempts of questioning it. He had been relieved when he had finally managed to calm Silver down by promising him that they would talk about all the possible implications the next morning.

***

Today some of Silver’s exhilaration had been replaced by a more quiet enthusiasm, but he was still agitated. It had taken Steel a considerable amount of effort to stop him from going into full lecture mode immediately after Steel had woken up. His mind an unpleasantly uncoordinated swirl of disconnected thoughts, he had felt far too tired to deal with Silver’s theories before he had a long, hot shower and a strong tea to fortify him for another day.

Now, after he had slowly sipped his way through the first cup of it, he finally gave Silver a nod. As he had done before his dæmon was sitting on top of the table, a sight that had caused not one but two raised eyebrows from the butler that had brought Steel his breakfast.

At seeing Steel’s nod, Silver moved a bit closer, then sat down again. “Where shall I start?” he asked, showing far more restraint than Steel would have expected of him. The realization made Steel smile, and feeling in an amiable and most likely heavily tea-induced state of mind, he said, “You can start wherever you like.” At Silver’s pleased reaction he smiled even more.

“Very well,” Silver began, “then let’s start with what I saw, what this entity is, and at last what that might mean for us.” He paused for a moment as if he needed to collect himself. “I believe I saw an angel. No, I’m sure I saw an angel,” he corrected himself. “The wings were a dead give-away.” Again he fell silent, giving Steel an expectant look.

Steel could sense a feeling of overwhelming smugness emanating from him. He chuckled at the sensation it left him with. “I think I’ve never seen you as self-satisfied as you are right now.” He reached out and just for the fun of it tugged at Silver’s tail, knowing full well that most probably it would earn him an indignant slap to the wrist.

Silver didn’t disappoint him, though his outward indignation was clearly a front while his mind didn’t lose on his overall delight. “You’re getting awfully good at sensing my frame of mind,” Silver said a moment later, and suddenly he sounded far more serious.

Steel looked at him. Silver was right. He had become very good at this, but so had Silver. Despite all their struggles and constant arguments they had become closely attuned to one another. If he thought about it, it was a very eerie sensation, how much in synch they really were. Against his will he felt a sudden anxiety spread through his mind. Was that what Silver had meant when he’d spoken of losing oneself? Was this newly developing closeness between them a sign of the process? What if it wasn’t only Silver who was in danger but him too?

“Steel!” Silver’s tone was sharp, cutting through the accelerating swirl of thoughts that were threatening to drown Steel’s mind with sudden fear. “Let’s talk about angels, shall we?” Silver asked, his voice turning as mellow as it had been harsh only mere seconds before. “That other matter we can discuss later.”

Steel nodded, grateful for Silver’s intervention, even if it he couldn’t help feeling slightly miffed by Silver’s authoritative tone.

“I know quite a lot about angels,” Silver continued. “There was this assignment that took Ruby and me to an old church. The people in the neighbouring village believed that an angel was appearing there regularly. It wasn’t an angel, of course. A break in time had occurred, allowing a ghost to slip through. It was terrorizing the poor villagers with visions full of wrath and violence. Nonetheless I did a lot of research on angels while we were looking for a way to neutralise the ghost.” He showed the lemur equivalent of a grin. “So you might very well call me an expert on angels.”

“And?” Steel asked.

“True angels are exceptionally powerful.”

Steel frowned. “Define exceptionally powerful.”

Cocking his head to the side, Silver hesitated a moment before replying, “Most likely, we wouldn’t stand a chance against one,” he said at last, speaking very slowly as if he needed to feel his way through the answer and all the implications it held for them both. His mood brightened again as he continued, “Fortunately, between us and them there isn’t much that might set us against each other, but that’s not the important thing I’m getting at.”

When no further explanation was forthcoming, Steel asked rather impatiently this time, “Well, what is it then?”

Silver sat up straight, then leaned forward slightly. “This transformation—” His hand went back and forth between the two of them. “I’m willing to bet it was this angel that caused it.”

Steel thought about it for a moment. If what Silver had said about an angel’s power was true, then it was a logical assumption. The question was what this discovery could mean for them. He was still contemplating that, when Silver spoke up again. He seemed to think that Steel’s silence was a sign of his hesitation to follow Silver’s reasoning.

“Think about it, Steel,” he said eagerly. “It was clear from the beginning that it wasn’t Lord Asriel alone who did this to us.” Again his hand made the back and forth motion between them. “The master confirmed as much when he hinted that he might have access to the same resources as his lordship, though under light of this new information I seriously doubt he knew what he was talking about. Regardless, I believe that Lord Asriel’s role in this might have been nothing more than that of an instigator.” He stared at Steel with an intensity that was slightly worrying. “He wasn’t the one who did the real work.”

“I see your point,” Steel interjected the instant Silver fell silent. “Just give me a moment to think about this,” he added. When Silver took a breath as if he wanted to continue or protest, he pressed a finger to Silver’s muzzle, silencing him for good.

Assuming that there was an angel involved in Lord Asriel’s game could be as much an advantage as a disadvantage. On one hand knowing that there might be someone else, another entity responsible for what had happened to them might give them more room for manoeuvring. While his lordship seemed completely impervious to reason, someone else might be convinced that it was time to call an end to this.

On the other hand, if Silver’s angel was as powerful as he claimed it to be, there certainly wouldn’t be a way to use any kind of force. That approach would have been far easier to take with Lord Asriel who was after all only a human. _Yes, just like yourself._ The thought sprang unbidden to Steel’s mind. He gave Silver a surreptitious look. _And he’s your dæmon,_ his mind helpfully supplied. Carefully he felt along the link between him and Silver that was so full of life now, so sparkling that he couldn’t fathom that he hadn’t been aware of it from the very beginning. He sensed his dæmon’s contentment mixed with a tiny sliver of impatience and a good portion of idle curiosity that had nothing to do with their current discussion. At some point Silver had given up on staring at Steel and shifted at least part of his attention to the marmalade carousel that had fascinated him from the moment he had first laid eyes upon it.

“Silver?” Steel said. He watched as Silver turned around, giving him a questioning look. “How do you propose we’ll find that angel of yours?” Steel asked.

“I think we have to draw it out somehow,” Silver answered immediately as if he had just waited for exactly that question.

“Yes, but how?” Steel asked again.

“Maybe we could use Lord Asriel?” Silver replied. “Assuming that the two of them are working together, threatening one of them might draw out the other.”

Steel raised his eyebrows in astonishment. “I hadn’t thought you could be so ruthless,” he gently mocked.

After a moment’s silence the answer was rather snappish. “What do you expect, I’m _your_ dæmon after all,” Silver replied. “It’s inevitable that something of you rubs off, don’t you think?” He sounded only partly as if he was joking.

Steel slowly closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, before he replied, “I think that threatening Lord Asriel can only be our last resort. It’s a path too dangerous to consider it lightly.”

“True,” Silver conceded, “but do you have a better one?”

To that, Steel had got no immediate answer.

***

Most of the morning and a good part of the early afternoon passed in discussion. While Silver was eager to act, Steel felt it necessary to be cautious in their next move. Naturally that led to their discussion turning rather heated occasionally. At one point the master came by, though he told them he hadn’t much time to talk.

“I’ve talked to Lord Asriel again,” he told Steel, the flustered expression on his face not boding well for the outcome of that conversation. “I had hoped to talk some sense into the man. Should that fail I had resolved myself to finally bring the full authority of my position to bear.” He straightened his shoulders a bit, as if he felt it necessary to remind himself that he, indeed, held some authority around the college. Yet his shoulder drooped down again almost immediately as he continued, “I’m afraid his lordship has moved well past the point of accepting anything remotely close to normal reason. I must say I’m rather amazed how obsessed he’s become about this whole affair.” He looked at Steel out of sad eyes.

Steel felt a rising irritation at the portray of defeat the master was displaying. “If you’ve confronted him already and if you’ve relied on your rank, it would be utterly detrimental if you backed down now,” he said vehemently, hoping to make it clear how urgent it was that the master didn’t give up.

The old man gave him a hazy look in response. “Do you think I don’t know that, young man?” he replied, but without much emotion. He sighed deeply. “Well, it’s time for lunch now and I have a conference with the bursar to attend to.” Turning already to leave he added, “We’ll talk later, I expect. Yes, we’ll talk later.”

Steel watched him slowly leave. The sight felt like another way out of this situation had just been barricaded for good. He doubted that the master would be of much further use to them. He looked at Silver and his dæmon’s feelings were a perfect mirror of his own.

They continued with their own discussion on how to best deal with Lord Asriel and his angel for a while, but without any real strategies available their discussion soon segued into casual talk while their mood turned towards lethargy.

***

They were shaken out of it rather abruptly when the young porter that had accompanied them the other night arrived at the master’s suite some time later. He looked flushed and he was so excited, he spoke the instant Steel had opened the door wide enough to shout through the gap. “Sir, come quickly! That statue of the boy, it’s turned alive again! Come quickly, Sir!” Without waiting for a reply, he tuned on his heels and ran back through the corridor.

Steel was out of the door within seconds, with Silver mere yards behind him, as they stormed through the corridor and down the stairs leading to the ground floor and the infirmary. Finally something had happened, something inexplicable, and it was such a relief to do something.

He skidded to a halt just before passing through the infirmary’s entrance door and felt Silver taking the opportunity to climb up his back and onto his shoulder. “So let’s see what we’ve got here,” Steel murmured to him and opened the door.

Inside they were greeted by a smugly beaming Doctor Moran. The young man looked as if any animosity he had once harboured against Steel was completely forgotten. “Mr Steel,” he said in open delight. “What a pleasure to see you. I hope I haven’t interrupted anything too important, but I thought you might want to see this— this wonder with your own eyes!” He grinned even wider and pointed towards the side room where the statue had been stored so far. Its door was closed and as Steel looked at it, the doctor’s expression turned serious. “We have to be silent,” he said. “The poor boy is sleeping now and I wouldn’t want him to wake. Still, a quick peek won’t hurt, so just go along.” He slightly waved his hand towards the door. “Go along and take a peek,” he repeated.

Just a peek — to Steel it was a phrase that was utterly disappointing. He wanted to know everything. He wanted to know exactly how and why this had happened, and he felt Silver’s own curiosity burning bright and hot through their link like a freshly lit magnesium torch. Nonetheless he was careful to be silent when he pushed down the door’s handle and stepped into the room.

For a second he was confused. The room was almost completely dark. Had someone dimmed the lights so the boy would be able to sleep? He was just about to turn back to Doctor Moran when a pair of strong hands suddenly closed around his wrists, pulling him forward. He heard Silver’s wail of surprise as his dæmon jumped off his shoulder just as he suddenly saw Lord Asriel’s face appearing out of the darkness in front of him.

He tried to take a step back, but the hands around his wrists were relentless, holding him fast. Before he could come up with anything else, he felt a sharp prick at the side of his neck. _A syringe!_ The image sprang to his mind instantaneously. It must be Doctor Moran behind him who was administering something to him. Instinctively he tried to kick back at the doctor behind him, but his heel only hit empty air. Were they poisoning him? The thought caused a trickle of ice running down his spine. He had trouble breathing. Where was Silver, his mind was screaming as everything felt more and more sluggish by the second. He felt so terribly exhausted. He couldn’t help it; he couldn’t stay awake. He was only dimly aware when he fell.


	19. Silver

Silver watched the whole scene in unmitigated horror. When Steel had been so suddenly jerked forward, Silver had jumped down from his shoulder. He had been terrified and he had instinctually tried to flee under the nearby desk in an attempt to hide and to get out of the way.

He had almost made it — almost. The desk had already been looming in front of him when something much larger than himself had barrelled into his side, pushing him over the floor several feet before he was able to skitter to a halt. He still hadn’t gathered who it was that had attacked him when all too familiar sharp fangs closed around his neck and a set of paws pressed him to the ground.

It was Lord Asriel’s dæmon who had trapped him. He had squirmed and even though it had hurt, he had managed to turn his head enough, so that he could at least watch what was happening to Steel.

The second he did see what was going on, he wished that he hadn’t. Steel was equally trapped as Silver. While Lord Asriel had managed to grip both of Steel’s wrists, the young doctor was standing behind Steel, holding a rather large syringe in his right hand.

Silver saw the needle sink into the side of Steel’s neck, saw Steel’s futile attempts to struggle free, saw him fall at last and for the first time Silver cursed his night vision for presenting him with such crystal clear images of what was happening to Steel. Briefly he closed his eyes and let himself go limp, feeling utterly defeated.

The lights were switched on and he numbly watched as the doctor knelt down beside Steel, checking his pulse. “He should be unconscious for several hours I think,” he said to Lord Asriel. Slowly he rose to his feet. Wiping his face, he gave the older man an uncertain glance. “I really hope this is for the best,” he said. “But after what I’ve seen, it’s simply too dangerous to let such an unstable individual remain without close supervision.”

Lord Asriel gave him a look that expressed nothing but calm concern. To Silver it looked utterly false. “Don’t worry, Doctor. I’ll make sure that he gets the best psychological care that can be arranged,” Lord Asriel said, all competence and well-meaning caution.

The doctor nodded. “As I’ve said before, I’ll be more than happy to help.” He sounded very eager.

Now Lord Asriel expression turned from concern to condescension. “Thank you, Doctor, but I believe this is slightly out of your field of expertise, don’t you think?” He paused and when the doctor didn’t immediately answer, he added, “Anyway, our first priority is to get him under lock and key, so we can be certain he can’t cause any more harm to others.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” the doctor replied hastily. “I really don’t understand how the master could have been so blind to the symptoms.” He shook his head in a gesture of disbelief.

“He’s an old man. I don’t think we should hold it against him. Sometimes it’s difficult to see when something’s wrong, especially when it concerns someone close to you,” Lord Asriel answered.

The doctor sighed heavily. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

Silver had listened to the men’s dialogue with rising anger. He felt ready to scream. That young fool of a doctor! Silver wanted to give him a piece of his mind or better still a good clobbering over the head. Instead he was reduced to quiet seething, since every action on his part would certainly have the effect of worsening his cause. He stayed silent, but it was almost too much to bear.

He watched them roll the unconscious Steel onto a gurney. He was surprised when Lord Asriel’s dæmon suddenly let him go, yet his instinctive impulse to effect a quick escape lasted less than a second. He couldn’t, of course he couldn’t. It was impossible for him to leave Steel’s side. Warily he looked at the two humans. His worst fears were confirmed when the doctor held out an open sack. “Come on, in you go,” he said, shaking the sack slightly. Obviously he expected Silver to let himself be bundled up without so much as even a token of resistance.

Baring his teeth, Silver reacted with an angry chitter when a hot breath down his neck reminded him that they had other means to use against him. With a last look at Steel and a resigned sigh he gave in to the unavoidable and climbed into the sack.

***

When he was finally let out again, it was to the all too familiar sight of Lord Asriel’s vault and cage. Aside from Lord Asriel and his dæmon no one else was present. Steel had already been placed in the cage again, and someone, most likely Lord Asriel had used a pair of old fashioned iron shackles on him, chaining him to one of the cage’s crossbars. He was obviously still unconscious, his head resting against his chest as he leaned against the cage’s bars.

“In you go,” Lord Asriel said lightly, giving Silver a push with his boot.

Silver didn’t grace him with as much as a glance. Cautiously he squeezed through the cage’s bars, his attention solely focused on Steel. He appeared to be unharmed, the only sign of any physical injury being a set of already darkening bruises around his wrists, barely visible beneath the shackles.

Careful not to unsettle Steel’s rather precarious looking balance against the back of the cage, Silver sat down beside him, laying his hands on Steel’s arm and leg. Silver couldn’t sense much from him, but that was most likely a side-effect of whatever drugs Steel had been injected with and not an indication that anything was wrong with their link. He shifted slightly, trying to make himself a bit more comfortable while he waited for Steel to wake up.

***

It took considerably less time than he had anticipated. In fact it seemed only like minutes until Steel’s legs began to twitch, his eyes fluttered, and with a violent jerk he finally came awake. “What?” he muttered softly, his eyes moving around, his look unfocused and slightly glazed. He stared at Silver for a moment. Then he noticed the shackles. He pulled at them fiercely, reacting with a wince as they chafed against his wrists. He looked around the vault until he finally saw Lord Asriel.

The wave of anger coming from Steel hit Silver with all the force of a storm wave crashing against a high cliff. Reflexively his fingers on Steel’s arm tightened, and he tried sending Steel a warning look, only to be ignored completely. He looked back and forth between the two men, and he felt fear rising within him. Steel was furious, and by the way he was straining against the shackles that forced him to stay on the floor, preventing him from rising to his feet, so he could face their captor on eye level at least, he was barely managing to hold his anger in check.

Lord Asriel for his part seemed intent to make the most out of their positions. He had stepped close to the cage and was practically towering over them, looking down with a haughty expression. “It seems we are back to square one, you and I,” he said, grim satisfaction playing over his features.

Silence fell, quickly turning oppressive.

“Why? Why are you doing this? What do you hope to achieve?” Steel finally asked. He sounded deadly quiet.

As long as he had known Steel, Silver had heard that particular tone of voice only twice before. Both times it had led straight to the death of someone who had made the colossal mistake of aggravating Steel past the point of his endurance, and that was no small feat. Steel was easily annoyed sometimes, but his annoyance never ran very deep.

“My objectives haven’t changed,” Lord Asriel replied. He sounded almost equally dangerous, but not quiet, at least not by Silver’s standards.

“Do you really think you can keep us here?”

“Us?” Lord Asriel asked back, a sneer on his face. Lowering himself into a crouch, he stared at them for a long moment. “Oh yes, us,” he finally repeated. Rising to his feet again, he began pacing in front of their cage. “I have to say I had such a fascinating conversation with Doctor Moran a while back. The things he told me about you and that dæmon of yours — a fight between a human and his dæmon — astounding really.” He drew to an abrupt halt in front of the cage, giving them another searching look that was almost unbearable in its intensity. Without thinking about it Silver pressed closer to Steel. “There were other reports, of course, that young porter and others of the staff—” He gave them a malicious smile. “We should never underestimate the perceptiveness of the staff, but we always do.”

 _So the porter’s been in on this scheme_ , Silver thought bitterly, though he couldn’t imagine that the young man knew or understood what was really going on here. _Most likely, Lord Asriel has spun him a wild tale about mental instability or some other nonsense and the porter has agreed to help. After all it was for a good cause, wasn’t it?_ He looked at Steel, met his eyes and judging by the distress Silver felt coming from him Steel was sharing his suspicions.

“You can’t truly expect to get away with this. I’m warning you,” Steel said, looking back at Lord Asriel again.

At the same time Silver could feel how resolutely Steel shoved his dismay to the back of his mind. Regardless of their dire circumstances, it was a comforting sensation. This was Steel going on the warpath, sticking out his chin, ready to fight any obstacle that got in their way.

“Once our disappearance has been noticed,” Steel said, “the master will immediately suspect your involvement. Where do you think he will come to first?”

His question drew nothing but a scoff from Lord Asriel. “And why should I care? It might have slipped your memory, but even the first time around he didn’t dare to confront me openly. Oh no, he slipped in here at night, breaking you out like a thief.” He laughed softly. “Where do you expect him to find the courage now? Will he come blazing in here? Think about it. By now he’s already spun such a dangerous web of lies, selling you as his guest to the college’s council. He’s managed to keep the incident with the boy-turned-statue a secret so far. What do you think will happen when all this comes out? And you can be sure it will come out if he tries to interfere with my plans. No, our dear master has put his head firmly into the sling by now. He won’t dare to move openly against me.”

“I think you’re fooling yourself,” Steel replied, but his words held no true conviction.

Lord Asriel seemed to think the same because he didn’t even deign giving an answer. Instead he seemed to have lost his interest in them as he walked over to the nearby bench and sat down. His dæmon followed him, sitting down at his feet, and Lord Asriel reached down to her, beginning to softly stroke her head. They appeared to be waiting for something, but for what Silver couldn’t imagine.

Raising himself to his legs he leaned close to Steel’s ear and murmured softly, “What do you think they’re waiting for?”

Steel only gave him a stern look in reply, as if he wanted to chastise Silver for showing any sign of insecurity that might be construed as weakness in front of their captor.

Silver sighed, letting himself drop back on his haunches. He didn’t draw away from Steel though, but huddled against him as discreetly as possible, their mental connection between them showing him clearly how much of Steel’s outward severity was just a front. He felt Steel stiffen then relax and press back at him. With another sigh he resigned himself to wait for whatever was supposed to be happening next.

***

It didn’t take too long, probably no more than an hour, before he was startled out of the monotony his mind had fallen into by a sudden sense of danger. He jerked upright and Steel followed his example, though he couldn’t say if Steel had felt something, too or was only reacting to Silver’s own sense of alarm.

He looked around and it was the faintest of glimmer that first alerted him to the presence of someone else inside the vault. Something was coming, something he had seen and felt before. With a start he realised that it was the angel he had sighted the other night. It appeared to slowly move down to them through the ceiling. It was a fascinating if slightly disturbing sight, watching it appear in this fashion.

Unlike the last night when he had barely managed to catch a glimpse, this time he was able to take a good look and observe every detail. The angel had the shape of a human, albeit a very tall one. It was clear that it was a he now as he was naked, and even though he was still only partially visible by his shimmering contours there couldn’t be any doubt about his maleness. It was his huge wings though, framing his body from behind, that were easily the most impressive sight.

Lord Asriel had risen to his feet at the angel’s first glimmer of appearance. Now he stepped towards him and without waiting for him to fully come down to the floor he said, “You are late.”

Silver could only gape at the audacity of the human. He might not have his usually high perceptiveness, but even with his reduced dæmon’s senses, Silver could feel the power of this being almost like a physical presence. It would have been awe-inspiring, if he had been prone to this kind of feeling.

“I am here now,” the angel replied in a neutral voice, folding his wings as his feet finally touched the ground.

“Yes, yes,” Lord Asriel confirmed rather impatiently. With a wave of his hand he motioned towards the cage. “As you can see, I’ve got him back again. Now I want you to find out what has gone wrong.”

There was a noticeable pause while the angel looked over to them, and Silver was beginning to wonder if he would refuse, but then the angel spoke again.

“He should stand up first.”

Silver could feel Steel tense beside him at the request.

“Is that really necessary?” Lord Asriel asked warily.

“I believe so, yes,” came the terse reply.

With a huff Lord Asriel rounded the cage. Kneeling down behind Steel, he deftly pulled on the shackles until he had one of Steel’s arms halfway out through the cage’s bars. Using a small key he made short work of freeing the wrist. He quickly let go and moved back from the cage, obviously concerned that Steel might try to use the situation to his advantage by making a lunge at him for example. The sight of his hasty retreat made Silver snicker, though he abruptly fell silent when Steel practically shot to his feet, whirling around so he could once again face Lord Asriel.

Silver hadn’t expected him to move so fast and he hurriedly scuttled out of the way of Steel’s feet, just to be on the safe side. It would be rather unfortunate if he got trampled down in a rushed attempt of Steel to get his hands on Lord Asriel.

“Can you separate them?” the angel behind them asked.

Steel’s reaction was as fast as his last one as he stooped down, picking up Silver and pressing him close to his chest, turning around, so he could face the angel now.

Circling the cage until he was once again standing beside the angel, Lord Asriel said, “That, I think, might pose a problem.” His face took on a laconic expression as he looked first at them, then at the angel, one eyebrow raised. “Why do you want them to be separated?” he asked.

The angel only shook his head in response.

Silver stared at them both with a sense of trepidation. He still had no idea what would be happening next, but he was beginning to fear the worst.

He saw the angel slowly moving towards them and his heart sank even further. He tightened his grip on Steel’s shoulder and arm, and he felt an answering tightening of Steel’s hands as he slowly moved backwards until he was leaning against the cage’s backside. The angel came ever closer. It was clear that he had no intention of stopping in front of the cage.

The image of the angel, slowly moving through the vault’s ceiling briefly flashed through Silver’s mind. Now the angel obviously meant to do the same to them, and suddenly he realised this might have been the exact same sensation he had all those days ago back in the library when he had felt something move through him, leaving him aching and hollow and in the shape of a dæmon. He wanted to tell Steel, but there was no more time. He saw the angel pass through the bars and he closed his eyes, not wanting to see the transition happening.

Even without seeing it, he knew exactly when the angel passed through them. The pain was almost unbearable.

 


	20. Interlude

Day had turned into night and Balthamos was more confused than he had ever felt before.

He had come here at Lord Asriel’s bidding. He had done exactly as his lordship had asked, but somehow everything had turned out horribly wrong. At first dealing with these elementals hadn’t seemed too difficult. He had no extensive knowledge of what they were exactly, but it seemed easy enough to effect the changes that Lord Asriel had been asking for on one of them. What he had done with the second had followed a somewhat impulsive decision though. Lord Asriel had only asked for one, and while he couldn’t let the other remain unchanged, there was no need to put him through the same ordeal as the first.

What Balthamos certainly hadn’t expected was to find somebody so closely resembling an ordinary human and his dæmon locked up inside Lord Asriel’s cage, both being a far cry from the elementals they once had been. It was no wonder that Lord Asriel had been so infuriated. He had wanted an elemental stunted, but not completely changed, so it would be susceptible to his questions and available to his experiments. He had made it clear that the answers he hoped to find would bring them a good step closer towards their goal of overthrowing the Authority. Balthamos had failed him, and so the angel had fled the vault in shame.

***

Now he was slowly circling high above Lord Asriel’s tower and the vault, feeling terribly indecisive what to do. He didn’t want to betray his fealty to Lord Asriel, yet he knew deep down that he had to act and do so regardless, at least to some small extent, if he wanted to prevent further tragedy. He had to right what was wrong, even if he had no idea how to do it.

Carefully, cautiously he descended, keeping a close watch for any night-time roamers, who might still be out on the college precinct. He had already been spotted once too often, though he knew that only few had recognised what he was. He wanted to keep it that way as best as was possible.

Upon entering through the tower’s roof he made certain he wouldn’t accidentally come across Lord Asriel. Slowly he moved from one storey to the next, passing through floors and ceilings unhindered until he finally slipped into the vault.

His appearance there caused a whole ruckus of frantic activity. He was startled to see the dæmon letting go of a glass he had been holding, causing it to shatter on the floor, the water it contained splashing in all directions. The dæmon jumped down from the table he had been sitting upon and sped across the floor before he slipped inside the cage, immediately climbing up the human’s leg until he was pulled up into the human’s arms.

Balthamos saw two pairs of eyes staring at him suspiciously, and he couldn’t begrudge them their wariness. Raising his hands in a gesture meant to appease, he very slowly moved closer. He stopped a good two steps away from the cage. Even at that distance the human had already moved as far to the cage’s back as possible, obviously afraid Balthamos might attempt to repeat his actions from earlier.

“I won’t come any nearer,” Balthamos told them. “Believe me, it was never my intention to cause you any harm.”

“Is that so?” the human returned, his voice sharp and dripping with sarcasm. “I wonder, why do I have trouble believing that?”

The question made Balthamos cringe inwardly, wishing himself as far away from this place as possible. He knew though that running away wasn’t an option. He shook his head and took another involuntary step forward, only to stop again when he saw the two elementals flinch in response. Reluctantly he stepped back again. “What can I do to convince you?” he asked.

“How about undoing whatever it is you have done to us?” the human replied. “I’m assuming that it has been you who’s been responsible for our change,” he added.

Balthamos nodded, but then shook his head, causing a frown to appear on the human’s face. “Yes it was me that caused your transformation, but the way you are now, that is not what I had intended.”

“How charming,” the dæmon now piped up, speaking for the first time since Balthamos had seen them in the cage. Struggling slightly, he freed himself from the human’s embrace until he could climb on the man’s shoulder. “But you _are_ going to change us back? he asked.

How could he answer that question? What had happened earlier, his attempt at understanding the nature of the transformation, had been a complete disaster. He looked back and forth between the two of them, unsure what to say.

“He can’t,” the human said, his voice sounding ice-cold.

Balthamos opened his mouth, drawing in a breath. He wanted to protest. After all, this wasn’t his fault, not entirely at least, but he was painfully aware how hypocritical such an explanation would sound and so he only averted his eyes again.

The ensuing silence felt laden.

“Fine, whatever,” the human finally said. “I gather that something didn’t go as planned. Can you at least get us out of here?”

Balthamos took a step back, shaking his head. No, he wouldn’t do that, he simply couldn’t.

The human came forward, stepping closer, his hands tightening on the cage bars that separated them. “You know that something is wrong, don’t you? Last night in the infirmary, have you seen the statue? Do you know what happened to that boy? Was that your doing?”

The questions fell like a relentless patter of hail. Coming here had been a mistake, he understood now. He had got here to discover what had gone wrong. He had thought that without Lord Asriel present he would be able to learn something about these two elementals that might help him to understand. He realised now that he couldn’t hope for their cooperation in this. On the contrary, they eyed him with ever increasing suspicion.

There were no answers here, only questions and accusations. Once again he turned and fled the room.


	21. Steel

Steel woke with a headache so bad, he wished he hadn’t woken at all or could go back to sleep, just so he wouldn’t have to deal with the pain. His body, however, was rather insistent on giving him detailed and graphic responses about how exactly it felt. Apart from the headache, his muscles were cramped since he had been forced to spend the night sitting on the floor of the cage. He couldn’t feel one of his legs. He was thirsty and hungry and he felt overall terrible. He groaned.

“Steel?” Silver’s voice sounded hesitant.

Without moving, Steel opened just one eye, risking a look at Silver. His dæmon was sitting at his side, watching him with an intent look on his face.

“You’re sure there’s nothing else to get me some water?” he asked.

Silver responded with an unhappy chitter. “I’m really, _really_ sorry, Steel, but when that angel appeared again I dropped the only glass I could find around here I’m afraid.”

Steel groaned again, remembering Silver’s attempt to get him something to drink that had so spectacularly failed when the angel had paid them another surprise visit last night. Glancing over at the glass shards dimly visible on the vault’s floor, he wondered how long it would take until Lord Asriel showed up. He was really thirsty and that feeling combined with the headache was slowly getting excruciating.

Cautiously he rose to his feet, noticing that stretching himself helped at least a little bit. He felt Silver tug at his trouser leg. Steel looked at him with a frown. “Why don’t you use the cage bars instead of my leg for a change,” he said. The anxiousness he got from Silver made him add, “I’m not feeling too well at the moment.”

He watched as Silver swiftly climbed up the cage bars until he was at eye level with Steel. Silver reached out, brushing over Steel’s temple and smoothing back a loose strand of hair. It was a strange gesture, oddly gentle, and a far cry from Silver’s normal behaviour around him.

Steel wasn’t sure what to make of it. “Are you alright?” he asked. It wasn’t exactly the question that he had wanted to ask, but it was the closest equivalent he could come up with that wasn’t too embarrassing. Nonetheless he moved a bit closer to Silver.

“I hate this cage!” Silver suddenly exclaimed, his voice an angry hiss.

Steel sighed, leaning against the cage’s bars. “As do I,” he replied quietly, “as do I.”

***

It was the sound of a key turning in its lock that pulled them out of their apathy a while later. Lord Asriel strode into the vault, his pace quick and full of purpose. He didn’t even wait until he had reached their cage, but spoke while he was still walking towards them. “Enough!” he exclaimed. “This has gone far enough! I have no idea how you did it, but I won’t allow this to continue.” He was clearly infuriated, his face livid with anger.

“What happened?” Steel asked calmly. He took a step back. Reaching out with one arm, he helped Silver get back on his shoulder.

“As if you don’t know!” was all Lord Asriel replied.

Steel had a growing feeling of unease. He had seen Lord Asriel angry before, but this time he seemed even more unhinged than during those earlier incidents. Carefully reining in his own impatience, he asked again, “Tell me what has happened.”

Lord Asriel stopped in front of their cage. “Going for Doctor Moran – that’s such a cheap kind of revenge. He was really nothing more than a pawn,” came his cryptic reply.

Nonetheless it was enough so that Steel could make an educated guess. “He was turned into a statue? Where?” he asked.

Lord Asriel looked at him silently. Steel was just beginning to fear that he would simply refuse to answer, that he would simply leave again. That he would leave Steel behind, locked away, powerless to do anything, helpless and miserable. The prospect was even more frightening and Steel was about to change tactics, seriously considering to plead when he saw the other man’s eyes narrow.

“The infirmary,” Lord Asriel replied.

Steel took a deep breath. “I didn’t—” he began.

“Be quiet!” Lord Asriel interrupted him. “I don’t care what you have to say. I don’t care if you did this intentionally or if this was an accident.” Slowly he reached inside of his jacket and to Steel’s alarm he pulled out a pistol from it.

Steel felt ice cold fear spread through his body. It was mirrored by a wave of alarm as well as a sheer cascade of frantic chitter coming from Silver. Steel took a step back, though he was all too aware how useless such an action was. There was no way to protect themselves. They were utterly vulnerable.

“I’m going to end this,” Lord Asriel continued. “I would have preferred a solution that doesn’t rely on violence, but it seems the angel isn’t capable to undo what he has done to you in the first place.” His eyes glittered in the diffuse light of the few anbaric lights. He appeared to be absolutely calm now.

Steel shook his head. “Don’t!” he said. “Killing us will solve nothing.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lord Asriel’s dæmon baring its teeth, its tail swishing from one side to the other, its agitation a marked contrast to its human’s almost preternatural calmness.

Slowly Lord Asriel raised the pistol until its muzzle pointed straight at Steel’s chest.

“No!” The shout rang out so loud that it caused everyone to flinch.

Coming from somewhere behind Lord Asriel, it took Steel a moment to realise who it was that had shouted. When he saw the shimmering form of the angel, however, he felt a tiny sliver of hope that there was still a chance they might survive this.

“Stay out of this, Balthamos!” Lord Asriel said, and Steel noticed that he didn’t even turn, his hand not wavering in taking aim.

The angel slowly came towards them until an angry hiss from Lord Asriel’s dæmon seemed to stop him. The dæmon had halfway turned around. Standing in a half-crouch, its ears flattened against its head, it growled deeply in its throat.

“One step closer and I’m going to shoot,” said Lord Asriel.

“I can’t allow this to happen,” the angel replied, his voice more a plea than a statement of intent.

There was no forewarning. The shot fell, a deafening noise like a clap of thunder.

Steel stumbled backwards against the back of the cage, not so much by the force of the impact, but out of shock that this was truly happening. A hot pain bloomed in his chest, but he also felt strangely numb, as if this was all happening to someone else but himself. He heard the double outcry, coming from the angel and Silver, felt his knees weaken and managed to slowly sink to the ground, leaning heavily against the cage’s bars behind him.

_Getting shot, what a pathetic end_ , he thought idly.


	22. Silver

When the shot fell Silver reacted purely by instinct. Jumping off Steel’s shoulder and down to the ground, he watched in horror as Steel staggered backwards until he hit the cage bars behind him and began sliding down.

This can’t be happening, he wanted to scream, but the sounds that left his throat were nothing more than a frantic stream of wails borne out of sheer panic. For a moment he completely forgot about Lord Asriel or the angel, his sole focus being Steel who now sat on the floor, leaning against the back of the cage, and looked at Silver with an expression full of stunned astonishment. Time froze as Silver looked back.

It was a soft thump that finally broke their tableau of paralysed stares. It caused Silver to break eye-contact and upon looking over his shoulder he saw the angel, kneeling between the outstretched forms of Lord Asriel and his dæmon. Silver had no idea if they were dead or merely unconscious, but he couldn’t help but wish it was the former of the two. _No_ , he interrupted himself, _if Lord Asriel were dead, his dæmon would start fading._ It was a wasted realization, not really important, and it angered him that he spent even this minimal amount of attention to reach this conclusion. Since the snow-leopard showed no signs of disintegrating into the dust it was made of, that meant that the two of them had only been rendered unconscious. He stared at the angel, who looked up, silently meeting his gaze.

“Help him,” Silver said, and when the angel didn’t react immediately, he continued, “Help him, or I swear I’m going to kill you. I don’t care if you’re more powerful. I will find a way.” The threat came easily over his lips, and he made it with the absolute certainty of someone who had nothing left to lose.

The angel only nodded and rose to his feet. Two steps allowed him to pass through the cage bars. Looking at Silver, he said, “Please move to the side. I think it would be unwise if you’d be affected by what I’m about to try.”

“What do you mean… try?” Silver latched onto the phrase immediately. “If you think—” he began.

“Please, move aside little brother.” The angel’s voice was very gentle.

Reluctantly Silver moved as far to the side as was possible without him actually leaving the confines of the cage. He looked at Steel, at the ridiculously small bloodstain on his chest, taking in his laboured breathing, the pallor of his face and the sheen of sweat that was glistening on his forehead and around his mouth.

Leaning forward, Silver watched closely as the angel slowly raised his hand, placing it gently over the wound in Steel’s chest. He saw Steel’s eyes flutter shut at the contact and for a second the sight caused a fresh wave of panic to soar through him. What if the angel couldn’t save Steel? What if the injury was too severe? His thoughts stumbled one over the other. What if Steel died? Would Silver simply vanish, just like an ordinary dæmon? Would it hurt? His mind raced on and on, and he felt helpless in stopping himself.

It was the sound of a deep breath from Steel that brought his whirling mind to an abrupt standstill. He watched Steel’s eyes open slowly, saw his gaze sharpen.

“Silver?” Steel asked, his voice hoarse.

Silver exchanged a quick look with the angel, not sure if it was safe for him to come near, but at the angel’s nod he shot forward and flung himself at Steel. He didn’t care if he was overly dramatic. He slung his arms around Steel’s neck, pressing his head against Steel’s cheek, ignoring Steel’s gasp of astonishment. Half expecting one of Steel’s more sarcastic comments, he was more than a little surprised, when he found himself tightly wrapped up in Steel’s arms.

“Tell me,” Steel’s voice whispered into his ear. “Was I hallucinating or did you actually threaten to kill that angel?” He chuckled weakly.

Silver felt embarrassment slowly rise and was still searching for a meaningful or witty reply when said angel interrupted them.

“We should leave here,” he told them. Rising to his feet, he passed through the bars again. Once outside, he laid his hand on the cage’s padlock, causing it to spring open.

Silver let go of Steel’s neck and hopped down from his lap. Looking back and forth between the two of them, he asked the angel, “Is he alright?”

Before the angel could answer, Steel moved to stand up, and while he used the cage’s crossbars to pull himself to his feet, it seemed more a gesture of caution than real need for support that prompted him to do so. Raising an eyebrow, he said, “Well, getting shot certainly didn’t improve my earlier discomfort, but I’ll live I expect.”

If there was any reliable indicator that Steel was indeed alright, then it was the return of his sarcasm. Deciding to ignore the comment, Silver turned to the angel and asked, “What now?”

“We need to leave,” repeated the angel.

“We should talk to the master,” Steel said at the same time.

The angel raised his hands warningly. “No, I’m afraid that’s not possible. After the doctor’s statue was found, members of the college council came forward, raising accusations against you. It seems the doctor made no secret of his doubts about your sanity. He had also told others of an incident between the two of you during which you wilfully risked his life. The fact that you seem to have vanished hasn’t exactly helped matters. So if you would leave here and simply returned to the master’s rooms you would most likely get arrested,” he said to Steel.

“Arrested by whom? Steel asked.

“The master finally had to call in the authorities. Right now the whole college is swarming with investigators, and a good portion of their numbers is looking for you right now.” The angel slowly shook his head. “No, you can’t return to the master,” he repeated, “but I have found a place for you, a place to hide and to rest for a while, a safe place to stay with someone I trust and who will help us.”

Silver felt suspicious at the angel’s words. “No offence, but you don’t appear to be the best judge of character, considering your recent liaisons.” He looked pointedly over at Lord Asriel’s prone body.

Impatiently the angel shook his head again. “The librarian,” he said, “we can trust her.”

Silver looked over to Steel, who raised his shoulders, then turned to the angel. “How do we get to her without being seen?” he asked.

“I can conceal us long enough,” the angel answered. “Please, trust me in this. I’m well aware of the shameful role I’ve played in this whole affair so far, but I want to help. I want to resolve this, and I want to help you regain your natural form and prevent any more deaths from happening.” He spread his arms imploringly.

Finally Steel nodded his assent. Casting a glance over at Lord Asriel and his dæmon, he said, “Very well, then let’s leave before one of these two wakes up.”


	23. Steel

As it turned out the safe place the angel had been talking about was a spacious workroom under the roof of the library building. The only one having access to it was the librarian herself and because of the delicate nature of the work that normally took place here, no one would dare to intrude without the librarian’s express permission.

“Restoring old books is a work of art,” she said, as she ushered all three of them inside. Steel looked around himself warily. He couldn’t help but feel suspicious about this supposedly safe hideout. The room they entered was filled with light, filtering in through two large rows of windows on each side of the room. Rows of low bookshelves with glass doors held what looked like very old and precious tomes. The centre of the room was dominated by two large tables on which books in various stages of deconstruction lay, waiting to be restored and rebound.

The librarian walked past these with nothing but the briefest of glances though, leading them to the other side of the room where a comfortable looking sofa as well as two armchairs stood, obviously put here to allow for a much needed break during work. A low tea table stood between them, decked out with a teapot and cups as well as a plate with sandwiches.

Turning towards them, she said, “When Balthamos—,” She gave the angel an almost shy look, as if she wasn’t sure he would let her use his name. “When Balthamos told me earlier that he wanted to bring you here, he also told me that you had spent the night locked away.” She made a small fluttering gesture with her hands. “Well, I thought you might be hungry and thirsty when you get here, so I got us a bit of sustenance.” She sank down into one of the armchairs while her dæmon settled down on the headrest, giving them a rather imperious look while it ruffled its feathers. Gesturing towards the sofa, the librarian said, “Please, have a seat.” She gave Steel a shrewd look and smiled. “I must say I feel a bit peckish myself.”

Gratefully he sat down on the sofa and watched as she leaned forward, picking up the teapot and filling two cups. He was just about to take a first sip when her next words, uttered in a surprisingly sharp voice caused him to spill a good amount of it on his shirt and trousers.

“That’s a nasty gunshot wound you’ve got there, Mr Steel.”

For a moment he simply stared at her, rapidly blinking while he tried to sort out how much he should tell her, eventually giving up and shooting a helpless look in Balthamos’ direction.

“Lord Asriel shot him. He would be dead hadn’t I intervened,” Balthamos told her.

“I see,” the librarian answered thoughtfully, scrutinising Steel for a long moment. She got up and went over to a small cabinet where she picked up a large carafe and filled a glass with its contents. When she returned to the table she held it out to Steel. At his questioning look, she said gently, “It’s just water. It’s good for the shock.”

“I’m not in shock,” Steel answered with irritation. Nonetheless, he took the glass and downed its contents in a few large gulps. After all he had been thirsty the whole night. Setting the glass down, he picked up his teacup again, giving the sandwiches a considering look and then picking one up. It couldn’t hurt to eat something, he reasoned with himself, even if he wasn’t feeling particularly hungry. When he sat back, he noticed that all eyes were on him. “What?” he asked.

Silver snickered softly. He had chosen to sit beside Steel, but now he rose to his feet and leaning closely to Steel he whispered, “Why don’t you do some introductions? It would make it far easier if I could freely join into this conversation.”

Before Steel could do so, however, the librarian spoke again. “I think that would be a good idea. Although I’ve already heard that for a dæmon you are quite an unusual example. Mr Silver, isn’t it?” she asked, throwing a glance in the angel’s direction, making it clear who had been her main source of information.

She didn’t wait for Steel or Silver to answer. “I’m pleased to meet you. As you already know, my name is Victoria Joyce, I am the librarian of Jordan College and this,” she gestured behind her, “is Cleisthenes, my dæmon.” Giving Silver a mischievous look, she added, “Cleisthenes knew immediately that there was something unusual about you, Mr Silver.”

“Please, just call me Silver,” Silver answered, his voice dropping to a lilting purr.

Steel knew only too well what was coming next, and it annoyed him to no end. In the past he had mostly ignored that kind of behaviour. Today though was different. Without thinking about it he reached over, giving Silver’s tail a tug that was only barely on this side of still being friendly. “Stop flirting, Silver. It’s truly unbecoming.”

The words had barely left his mouth when he realised the colossal mistake he had made. Within a split-second he found himself the focus of a piercing amber-yellow stare that quite literally seemed to bear down into his soul.

Had Silver’s voice been a flirtatious purr when he addressed the librarian, it was pure silk now as he leaned close to Steel again. “Why, Steel. I hadn’t known you cared,” he murmured, letting his tail flick playfully over Steel’s hand and thigh.

Suddenly it felt rather warm in the room. Steel tried to diffuse the odd tension by loudly clearing his throat. He took another bite of his sandwich and chewed purposefully.

It was Balthamos, who was the first to speak afterwards. Rising to his feet, he said, “I have to go. We need to learn more about the circumstances of Doctor Moran’s transformation, and I have some additional inquiries to make. Looking over at the librarian he asked, “Will you help?”

She rose with a smile. “Of course I will help,” she answered. To Steel she said, “And you should rest. You’re still a bit pale around the nose, even if you’re obviously _not_ in shock.” Picking up her dæmon, she helped him settle on her shoulder.

Startled Steel looked back and forth between the angel and the woman. “Wait!” he exclaimed. “You can’t just leave us here. What are we supposed to do while you are gone? Aren’t we supposed to make a plan, come up with a strategy?”

She smiled down at him, though he thought that her expression looked suspiciously like condescension. “Oh, we will, but as Balthamos said, first we need more information. I’m going to see what I can learn from my colleagues and the authorities that are still snooping around our college. Maybe later I can even pay a visit to our most venerable college master.” She walked towards the door and opened it. Standing inside the open doorway, she turned back to Steel again and smiled at him. “Don’t forget to lock up behind me,” she said and quietly closed the door behind her.

“We’ll be back in the evening,” Balthamos said, choosing the direct route through the roof.

***

After the two had left the workroom, Steel stared blindly at the empty teacup in his hands. Finally he slowly got up and did as he had been told. He locked the door and pulled the key out of the lock, placing it on one of the worktables as he walked back to the sofa.

With a weary sigh he sat down again. Suddenly he felt very tired. Looking at Silver he wondered if there was anything he should say now. Carefully he tried to gauge Silver’s mood. During the last hour he had been so preoccupied with himself and everything that had been happening around him and more importantly _to_ him — being shot invariably did that to you, he thought laconically — but now he wanted to make sure that there were no lasting effects to either of them or to their link. The only problem was: he had no idea how to go on about it.

The most immediate emotions he could pick up from Silver were both worry and relief. It was a confusing mix and it certainly didn’t make it any easier to discern if there were any problems. He tried to pick up more, to probe deeper. He was so focused on his goal that it took him a while until he noticed that the room had grown terribly quiet.

Looking at Silver, sitting by his side, he asked. “Are you checking me up?”

His question caused Silver to duck his head, before throwing Steel a somewhat guilty look. No, Steel suddenly realised. In his current form, Silver’s face wasn’t capable of showing clearly discernible emotions. Steel was picking up on the guilt through their link, just like he had done with all the other emotions. “I’m alright, Silver,” he said.

It seemed as if Steel’s words had broken down some kind of invisible barrier that had held him back so far, because quite suddenly Silver came to life. With startling alacrity he climbed onto Steel’s thighs and wordlessly began unbuttoning his shirt.

“What?” Steel exclaimed, taken aback by his dæmon’s strange behaviour.

“I need to see,” was all that Silver said, but it didn’t take more than a couple of heartbeats for Steel to understand.

“I’m fine, Silver,” he repeated. Silver’s actions felt slightly improper, but Steel ignored his own reaction, understanding the greater importance for his dæmon. Reaching up he helped Silver unbuttoning his shirt until Silver could pull it open. It felt awkward and strangely familiar, but the frenzy of Silver’s mind allowed no refusal. Steel hadn’t given his chest much thought himself, but on Silver the sight seemed to have an almost mesmerising effect. He raised both his hands, bringing them to rest on the spot where the gunshot wound had been. Now there was nothing but unblemished skin.

Silver’s hands on his chest felt almost intimate. They tickled slightly and for no discernible reason Steel felt his throat tighten at the look he saw in Silver’s eyes. He felt his cheeks grow warm and suddenly the whole situation was far too intense to bear any longer. Reaching up he pulled Silver’s hands away, so he could button up his shirt again.

“I’m alright, Silver,” he said for a third time. When he sensed Silver’s disbelief, he added, “I’m just tired.”

Silver reacted with a quiet snort, but climbed down from Steel’s lap and gave him a shove to the shoulder. “Lie down then. Apparently there won’t be much happening for a while.”

Obediently Steel complied, though he couldn’t resist tease Silver. “Who would have thought you could be so bossy,” he said, stretching himself out on the sofa. Yet, when Silver reached up to climb on the sofa’s backrest, presumably to keep watch over his sleep, he caught hold of one of Silver’s legs, pulling gently. “No, come down here,” he said. He felt sleep already tugging on his consciousness, but he wanted to keep Silver close, couldn’t bear to be separated right now. He closed his eyes.

“I’m not tired, Steel,” Silver’s voice replied, sounding strangely distant, even as Steel managed to cradle his dæmon close to his chest.

“Doesn’t matter,” he murmured. He smiled when he heard Silver’s answering sigh, a sound halfway between contentment and indignant resignation. Finally he fell asleep.


	24. Silver

Evening came much faster than Silver would have thought possible. To his surprise, he had slept through most of the day, though he suspected it might have a lot to do with Steel being far more put out by his most recent ordeal than he had let on to the others. Silver had no idea if it was normal that he was so strongly affected by Steel’s exhaustion, but even if it weren’t normal, there wasn’t much he could do about it.

Victoria and Balthamos had returned early in the evening and now they were discussing what the two of them had learned.

“The college is in turmoil,” Victoria said, her voice sounding oddly placid as if she wanted to make it clear that she really wasn’t excited by all the havoc around her. “Two members of this college turned into statues — that is the matter nightmares are made of. It’s bad enough that it hit one of our students. Poor Timothy Arlton was one of the most popular and gifted of our pupils, but to strike again, and take our dear Doctor Moran? Students and staff are shaken to the core. There are some wild theories and accusations flying around, quite a lot of them revolving around you, your strange appearance, and equally strange disappearance, Steel.” Leaning forward she gave Steel one of her sharp glances, before she continued. “Would you believe it? There’s even a theory that postulates that it was you who committed these most dreadful murders and that it was Lord Asriel who in turn captured and killed you for it.”

Steel made a low questioning sound. Silver couldn’t see his face, but he was sure he could guess at the frown of disbelief. After Victoria’s and Balthamos’ arrival he had found himself once again tugged down from the sofas backrest and safely enfolded within the circle of Steel’s arms. It was rather amusing how much Steel’s near brush with death had brought out his protective streak. It had been there before. Silver had always been well aware of the fact, but it seemed that Steel had given up all pretence of hiding it now.

Silver for his part had been somewhat taken aback at first, but after a while he had come to appreciate the attention. There were far worse things than getting his fur stroked on a regular basis. 

“You see, the authorities searched that vault,” Victoria said, her voice drawing him back from his slightly baffled, but mostly pleasant musings, to the more pressing matters of life and death. “They discovered the cage and there was blood on the floor, human blood they say. The theory proclaims that he killed you down there and then deposed of your body by throwing it into the Thames.” Falling silent, Victoria stared at them intently. Silver could have sworn he saw a glitter of excitement dancing in her eyes as she spun her gruesome tale.

“And what does his lordship have to say to these accusations?” Steel asked drily.

Victoria smiled. “He’s very quiet at the moment. His problem is that everyone knows what a passionate man he is and that his passions easily turn into violence. There was that rather unfortunate incident with the late Mr Coulter some years ago.”  She paused, as if she was considering how much she should tell them about that incident. In the end, she just said, “Let’s just say that Lord Asriel’s past works against him now, so he’s treading very carefully because of that.”

“The question is, does that help us or hinder us?” Silver replied.

Before Victoria could answer, Steel cut in. “Honestly I couldn’t care less about Lord Asriel,” he said gruffly. “What I want to hear are some answers.” Turning towards Balthamos, he gave the angel a hard stare.

The angel shifted in his armchair, causing his wings that he had folded over the chair’s high backrest to softly scrape over the floor. He looked extremely uncomfortable, but there was also a look of determination on his face. Silver hoped that he would finally explain his involvement in all of this to them.

“I don’t claim to understand everything that Lord Asriel does or aims to do,” Balthamos began. “But he has told me of his goals and of his vision. I honestly believe his cause is just, but he is also a secretive man, so there may be things I don’t know.” He let his gaze wander from one to the other, as if he wanted to make sure he had everyone’s attention. “It’s Dust that lies at the heart of all this. It’s Dust that permeates and rules everything in this world. Understanding its nature and discovering its source are Lord Asriel’s great ambitions.”

“But what does that have to do with us?” Silver asked.

His question drew an impatient chuckle from Victoria. “Isn’t it obvious? Like angels you elementals _are_ Dust. You’re comprised of it.” She paused, her gaze turning thoughtful. “I assume you _are_ an elemental,” she said to Silver, “both of you, I mean.” Her voice faltered as she looked hesitantly from him to Steel and back again. Then she drew a deep breath and continued more forcefully, “That’s what Balthamos has told me, or more precisely what he insinuated.” She gave the angel a rather dirty look that made it expressively clear what she thought about this kind of insinuations. “He hinted that you were both elementals.”

Now Steel was obviously getting impatient. “Yes we are,” he answered in his short-clipped manner of old. “But you haven’t answered Silver’s question.” He looked at Balthamos. “If angels and elementals are both comprised of Dust, then why go to all the trouble of capturing us? Why couldn’t he conduct his experiments on you?”

His question filled Silver with a sense of unease. There had crept a certain aggressiveness in Steel’s voice that Silver knew very well. Steel thought he was lied to.

“What makes you think that hasn’t already happened?” Balthamos asked back. “However, there is one significant difference between us. Well, one among others.” Slightly spreading his wings, he drew their attention to a very obvious one. “Elementals can travel between universes. Angels can’t. It’s a unique gift. It’s also an ability that we believe to be essential for discovering the source of Dust.”

Silver shook his head. “Then how does turning us into a human and a dæmon fit into it? You’ve changed us so profoundly; it almost seems as if you wanted to sabotage his lordship’s plans.”

“No!” Balthamos exclaimed, clearly agitated by Silver’s accusation. “I would never do such a thing! All this was never meant to happen.” He gave Steel a pleading look. “I only meant to stunt your abilities, not take them away entirely. I sensed that something had gone wrong, back in the library when we merged, but I wasn’t clear on what exactly it was. And you—” he looked at Silver, “I hadn’t made any plans for you. You didn’t feature in our scheme. I had to improvise and when I saw you I thought that it might be a good idea to allow you keeping each other’s company.”

“Thanks,” Steels reply was as dry as the dust they’d been talking about.

Balthamos lowered his head.

“And then the spectre appeared and you discovered that you couldn’t change them back,” Victoria addressed the angel softly.

Balthamos gave a miserable nod. “I tried to reverse the changes last night when I merged with them, but all I accomplished was causing them pain.” He looked up beseechingly. “That had never been my intention.”

“So what do we do now?” Victoria asked, her gaze travelling from one to the other.

“We have two priorities. First, we have to neutralise that shadow or spectre or whatever it is,” Steel answered, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had followed after Victoria’s question. “Secondly, we have to find a way to return both myself and Silver to our natural form.”

Despite the direness of their situation, Silver couldn’t help but feel amused by Steel’s words. _Oh, look_ , he thought in secret delight, _my operator’s back_. This kind of behaviour was something he knew well — Steel was taking charge again. He would see to it that they gathered all the facts, viewed all possible solutions. Then he would proceed to destroy any obstacle standing between them and the goals he had set for them. It was how Steel worked and regardless of everything that had happened to them, Silver trusted him implicitly, knowing that Steel would stop short of nothing to get what he wanted.

“Yes,” Balthamos answered. “I believe you’ve brought it to the point. Incidentally I’ve sought out help to understand better what this spectre mighty be. I have talked to— a friend, and we’ve come to the conclusion that banishing this shadow might be the only way to return things to the way they were.

“Returning things to the way they were. Does that entail the boy and the doctor?” Victoria asked hopefully.

“Their transformation is irreversible I’m afraid,” Balthamos answered. He shook his head in obvious sorrow.

Silver had noticed that just as Balthamos had mentioned consulting a friend, Steel’s presence had become tinged with suspicion again, almost drowning his earlier sense of renewed purpose and confidence.

“Don’t tell me, you’ve conferred with Lord Asriel,” he now said, his voice turning dangerously low, a perfect reflection of the waves of distrust coming off of him.

Balthamos reacted as if he’d been hit. Visibly recoiling, he said, “Of course not! As I’ve said, I’ve talked to a friend. Baruch is an angel, just like me.” He took a deep breath, ostensibly to calm himself. “While I still believe in Lord Asriel’s cause, I understand that we were in error when we tried to enforce your cooperation. I have no intention of talking to him until this matter is resolved.” He sounded very serious, and Silver could feel Steel’s suspicions slowly abate.

“So how do we banish this spectre?” Silver asked, both out of genuine curiosity and in an attempt to further dissipate the lingering tension. “Why is it attacking people, and especially, why is it turning them into statues?”

Balthamos shook his head in response. “I don’t have answers to your questions. All I know at this point is that the spectre appeared shortly after your transformation. It seems to be drawn to humans, but it does flee me, so I haven’t been able to learn more about it. As to your last question, why does it turn them into statues? I admit that this baffles me the most.” He paused for a moment, his face taking on a new expression, as if he wanted to apologise in advance for what he was about to say next. “Banishing the spectre won’t be easy, but I think I will be able to accomplish it. However, before I can try anything, we first need to capture it. We need to set up a trap and to do so we’re going to need suitable bait, a human bait, I believe.”

Silver heard Steel draw in a deep breath. It was obvious he was going to volunteer. Yet, before Silver could come up with something clever or rash or possibly both to stop him, Victoria effortlessly beat him to it.

“I think, that will be my part,” she said lightly, and when everyone was looking at her, she added, “Oh my, I’ve always wanted to act the part, you know? Playing the damsel in distress.” She chuckled.

“Out of the question!” Steel replied, though the rest of his protest was cut short when Silver finally had enough and took advantage of his position in Steel’s lap by none to gently biting the one of Steel’s hands that was closest.

Hastily the hand was pulled away. “Silver,” Steel exclaimed. “I thought we’ve talked about the biting.”

“Oh, sorry,” Silver answered, feigning innocence without really trying to hide the fact that it was a complete sham, causing Victoria to give a surprised and rather dirty chuckle.

Before anyone could say anything else, Silver continued, “I think, Victoria’s offer is very brave. It is also very logical, as it allows the rest of us a maximum amount of freedom in our movements. Clearly it’s the most effective way to keep her safe, don’t you think?” He had turned around while he spoke, so he could look up at Steel. Now he not only felt but saw the conflicting emotions ghosting through Steel’s mind. Eventually Steel nodded in assent, but it wasn’t a happy nod.


	25. Steel

It was a picture of false tranquillity, Steel thought. From his hiding place at the far side of the library’s second hall he could see Victoria sitting at one of the otherwise deserted reading tables. She was the centre of a small pool of light, created by the anbaric lamp she’d brought along and placed on the table beside her. The rest of the library lay in absolute darkness, hiding him as well as Silver and even Balthamos. At least they hoped that it hid them. They had no way of knowing how the spectre perceived its surroundings, but without any real alternative they had decided to make do with what they had.

A small sound, almost imperceptible to his human ears, caused him to look up. Silver was crouching on top of one of the library’s large bookshelves opposite from Steel on the other side of the main aisle. He was a small shape, practically invisible safe for the soft glow of his amber eyes. Steel thought about shushing him, but speaking would rather defy the point he wanted to make, and so he kept silent, restraining himself to a stern glare and a deep sense of disapproval, hoping that Silver would at least pick up one of the two.

Looking further upwards, he followed the hall’s high ceiling, trying to see where Balthamos was hiding. The angel had resorted to positioning himself halfway _inside_ of the ceiling in an attempt to mask his shimmering contours. He had obviously been quiet successful, because Steel couldn’t see even the tiniest sliver of him.

A rustle of pages drew his attention down to the library’s floor. He looked back to Victoria. She had gotten up, presumably to get another book from a nearby shelf. Picking one up, she returned to her table. For a moment she stood still, looking down the hall. She appeared to be perfectly calm, no small feat considering that they were waiting for a creature that could literally turn humans into statues.

He was still frustrated that they had settled on her playing the bait. He had understood Balthamos’ reasoning that a human would be the logical choice. It was clear that the spectre was somehow drawn to them, but he still believed that he would’ve been a far better choice.

Another sound interrupted the silence. This time it came from the doorway leading to the library’s main hall. Steel turned, but there was nothing to see, the darkness impenetrable to his eyes. He tried to meld with his surroundings, keeping his breathing as light and shallow as possible. The air around him began to grow cold. He kept his eyes fixed on the hall’s entrance, hoping that between the static and moving darkness he would make out their prey. It was the tiniest flicker that eventually caught his eye, and he felt his pulse quicken at the sight. The spectre had entered the hall. Now everything would depend on all of them playing their roles.

He watched closely. Now that he knew what to look for, he could follow the spectre’s progress along the main aisle. It was slowly gliding towards Victoria, its movements unhurried but purposeful. Steel watched as it passed the point where Balthamos was supposed to be hiding in the ceiling. He looked upwards and, yes, now he saw the first shimmer of the angel appearing from the ceiling. The spectre obviously hadn’t noticed him so far, and hopefully it wouldn’t until it was too late.

Steel moved forward and though he couldn’t see him, he could feel Silver silently moving forward, too. It was a risky move, but their presence was supposed to mask Balthamos’, and at this point that was of the utmost importance.

The shadow was less than a few yards away from Victoria by now, and Steel saw that she had stopped reading. Instead she was looking down the main aisle, her gaze following the spectre’s progress. Slowly she rose to her feet, but she made no attempt to run. She simply waited, trusting that the other players in their game would take up their roles. Steel tried gauging the distances. It was Silver’s and his task to draw the spectre’s attention away from Victoria. Was it time already? He wasn’t sure.

A sharp screech from Silver tore through the silence, causing the shadow to whirl around. Now that it was close enough to Victoria and her anbaric lamp, it was far easier to pick out. Steel cried out wordlessly. The spectre spun again, finding itself presented with three targets now instead of one. For a moment it appeared to be uncertain how to react. It hovered motionless. Steel felt a flutter in stomach as he saw the angel drawing close from behind. The spectre’s indecision would be his ultimate doom; he felt certain of it.

It was still wavering, seemingly torn between pursuing Victoria, who had moved to the middle of the aisle, him at her left, or Silver at her right when Balthamos made his final move. A quick rush forward and the angel was there, another and darkness and light merged.

For a second it seemed as if nothing was happening. Steel didn’t know what he had expected, but there should have been at least _something_. He opened his mouth to ask a question, or maybe he wanted to shout a warning? Later he couldn’t remember.

His intention was lost in the maelstrom of chaos that suddenly erupted from the pair of beings in front of them. They fought against each other like forces of nature, clashing and swirling around each other. Their forms intermingled and blended, giving them the appearance of a swirling cloud of shapes and limbs that was turning faster and faster while flashes of light and darkness shot out from its centre. The most eerie aspect about it was that it all happened in almost complete silence. There were no screams, no claps of thunder, but only a subdued roar that sounded like the rush of blood that can be heard by putting a palm over one’s ear.

He wondered when Balthamos would end it. So far he hadn’t doubted the angel’s ability to subdue their foe, but the longer their fight continued the more he began to fear for its outcome. He was still considering if he should tell the others that maybe a tactical retreat would be the better part of valour, when the frantic swirl suddenly stopped. For a second everything drew to a standstill. The next instant Balthamos shot out of the tangle, shot upward so forcefully that he actually vanished through the ceiling.

Steel stared after him, for a moment unable to comprehend what might have happened. A soft gasp, coming from Victoria, reminded him that it was only the angel that had been forced from the scene. When he looked down again, he saw the spectre slowly assuming its previous form. Once again it hovered in front of them, blocking their way out of the hall. It appeared to be indecisive which one of them it should choose.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Silver taking a step forward. Steel hissed a sharp warning, “Don’t be a fool!”

It earned him the spectre’s immediate attention, and he decided to use it to their advantage. Taking a slow step away from Victoria and Silver, he said, “Don’t move! Wait until I say run, then _do it_!” He took another step to the side, calculating the distances. _Only one more_ _and the others will have a fair chance of getting out of here._

He didn’t get the chance to take that step.Without any forewarning the spectre suddenly rushed forward, directly towards him. Instinctively Steel stumbled backwards, raising his hands in a gesture not unlike the one the boy must have used before he had been turned into a statue. The thought came unbidden to his mind and he cursed. Another sudden move to his left caught his eye as a far too small streak of grey appeared in front of him and with a high pitched shriek of fury collided with his attacker.

Steel froze. Just like the spectre’s sudden rush forward he hadn’t seen this coming. _Of all the imbecile things Silver could have tried_. The thought raced through his mind with a flare of anger. Steel watched the spectre stop dead. Then it took a hesitant step back as if unsure how to react to this latest turn of events.

There on the ground laid the lifeless form of his dæmon. The sight caused Steel’s anger to evaporate in an instant, filling him with so much dread in its place he had to draw a heaving breath to prevent himself from crying out loud. The spectre took another couple of steps back, its gaze fixed on Silver.

It was at that moment that Balthamos finally choose to re-join them, coming down through the ceiling like a crazy, glowing bird of prey, hitting the spectre head-first and pummelling it to the ground. The ensuing fight was even more vicious than before. It was also mercifully short.

Steel couldn’t have cared less. Regardless of the spectacular battle raging in front of him, he had only eyes for Silver. He barely registered Victoria gripping him hard, preventing him from stepping forward until the fighting had ended.

Silver was dead. Steel couldn’t believe it, but it had to be true. When Victoria let go of him he stumbled forward and fell to his knees. Hesitantly he stretched out a hand, torn between the need to touch his dæmon one last time and the fear of making the true horror of this situation all the more real.

“Curious that he hasn’t been turned into a statue, though it’s rather fortuitous for us I must say,” Balthamos said, sounding slightly out of breath but otherwise downright jovial.

I caused white-hot rage to sear through Steel’s mind. Looking up at the angel he had the overwhelming urge to hurt this being, and he would have if he had known of any feasible way to accomplish it.

Apparently his face was a clear mirror of his heart, because after only one brief look at him, Balthamos actually took a step backwards, raising both hands in a placatory manner. “He isn’t dead, Steel. It might seem that way, but believe me, he isn’t.”

Steel stared at him for a long moment before he looked down again. Questions like ‘What happened?’ and ‘How do you know?’ chased each other in his mind, but he remained silent, not trusting his voice. Very carefully he picked up his dæmon’s limp body and, without so much as another glance at the angel, he started to walk back to the workroom.


	26. Silver

“I still don’t understand why he hasn’t been turned into a statue.”

Silver quietly listened to Victoria’s remark. She had just made it for the third time, and he was slowly but irrevocably growing tired of the circle of attentive faces that looked at him every time afterwards as if he was some kind of miracle that could be solved if one stared at him long enough. “Well, I for one am rather relieved by the fact,” he casually threw in. All this fussing was really grating on his nerves.

Unsurprisingly, the sarcastic remark earned him a flick to the ear as well as a softly muttered, “Idiot,” coming from Steel. Upon waking he had found himself resting comfortably in Steel’s lap. For a moment he had been unsure if all the things he remembered happening down in the library had been nothing but an extremely elaborate and vivid dream. Here he was, just as he had been before, with Victoria sitting in one armchair, Balthamos occupying the other, and a pot of tea standing on the table between them. Steel had been stroking his fur rather nicely, only the strange weakness he had felt had been an indication that something actually might have happened to him. It was Steel’s startled exclamation and worried look that had finally shattered the illusion.

No, the night in the library _had_ happened. Balthamos _had_ failed to subdue the spectre initially. The spectre _had_ threatened to go after Steel, and Silver— Silver had done one the most irresponsible and utterly reckless things in his whole existence, or so Steel had told him… repeatedly.

At first Silver had tried to protest, but eventually he had realised that it would be far easier to just give into Steel’s insistent bickering about his foolishness. So he had apologised and quietened down, revelling in the knowledge that apart from all the worry, anger and relief he could feel coming from Steel, there was also a rather noticeable sliver of pride about his actions mixed into it.

“What _I_ don’t understand,” Steel said now, looking at Balthamos, “is why you didn’t get rid of that spectre.” Just as Victoria’s earlier comment, this wasn’t a new one coming from Steel.

As Silver had learned shortly after waking up, Balthamos had not tried to banish the spectre as he had told them the other day. Instead he had managed to subdue and restrain it. Then Balthamos and Victoria had taken the spectre down into the library’s cellar, effectively locking it in there until they could decide what to do with it later.

So far Balthamos had been rather evasive when Steel had tried to question him about his motives for doing so. Now, however, the angel looked up at Steel’s words. “I believe I might have misjudged the situation,” he said slowly, carefully choosing his words like a wanderer searching for a way through unknown terrain. “So far I had thought that this spectre was inadvertently set free by me when I tried to capture you for Lord Asriel.” He fell silent, lowering his head again.

“Yes?” Steel prompted after a while.

Balthamos looked up again. “What if this spectre wasn’t so much set free by my actions as it was created by them?” he asked.

The idea sounded so far-fetched, it made Silver wonder what new insights the angel might have gained to suspect something like that.

As if she had followed his train of thought Victoria returned to her own question. “Do you think that’s the reason why Silver hasn’t been turned into a statue? Because this spectre might be in some way connected to him?”

“I can’t see how it should be connected to Silver,” Steel protested. “If it’s connected to anyone, the most logical person would be Balthamos.”

Balthamos slowly shook his head. “I’m not entirely sure. But if this creature somehow came into being when I tried to stunt your abilities, then it might very well be linked to all three of us. If so, banishing it might have disastrous results. For all we know attempting that could even kill you.”  

For a while no one spoke.

“Then what do you propose to do next?” Victoria finally asked. “We can’t very well let it stay in the cellar forever.”

“No we can’t,” Balthamos agreed, “And even if we could that wouldn’t solve the problem of returning both Steel and Silver to their elemental form.” He rose to his feet, carefully folding his wings behind him. “I need counsel in this matter, and I’m afraid this might take a while,” he said.

“As long as you stay clear of Lord Asriel,” Steel muttered.

“I will,” Balthamos replied earnestly. With a last look and a respectful nod to their round he left the room, choosing his by now usual route of exiting through the roof.

After he was gone, Victoria heaved a deep breath, then sighed loudly. “What a mess this is,” she said. She looked to the row of windows at the other side of the room, and Silver’s gaze followed her example. Outside the dawn of a new day was already tinting the sky in lightening shades of blue. “Well, I have a busy day ahead of me. Why don’t the two of you rest a bit more? You’ve both been through quite a lot and until Balthamos returns there isn’t that much to do anyway.”

The prospect wasn’t exactly enticing, but just like the other day there wasn’t any real alternative.

***

Their resolve to wait for Balthamos’ return lasted for nothing more than a handful of hours.

They had taken Victoria’s advice to heart at first and had actually rested for a while. This had been a very pleasant experience for Silver as it had involved both of them lounging on the sofa, idly talking about trivialities, with Steel being almost a tad too attentive to him, until Silver had made the mistake of mentioning Sapphire and how much he wished she were there with them. It had felt as if he had set them both on a feedback-loop centring on their impatience to return home. Inadvertently they had spurred each other on until Steel obviously had had enough.

Rising to his feet, he declared, “This is useless. I don’t care if Balthamos thinks he needs more information to act upon. I applaud his thoroughness in the matter, but I won’t sit around idly while there are better ways to spend our time.”

The announcement worried Silver, even though he felt at least as impatient as Steel at this point. “What do you propose we do?” he asked. “Victoria said, the college precinct is still swarming with investigators. That means there’s no safe way to get out of the building.”

Steel frowned at him. “I don’t want to leave the building,” he answered. “I want to get down into the cellar.”

Now Silver was seriously alarmed. “I don’t think that’s wise Steel,” he said, but even as he voiced his protest he knew that the decision was already made. Steel _would_ go to the cellar and Silver would follow him. So instead of protesting any further he changed tactics, saying, “If we’re going down there, you should straighten yourself out a bit.” Casually waving his hand he added, “You’re a bit more dishevelled than usual, and should we happen to come across someone unexpectedly, you should at least look presentable.” He gave Steel another pointed look. “That includes doing something about that bullet hole,” he said, motioning at Steel’s shirt.

His criticism earned him a whole series of grumbled, rather unfriendly responses, but eventually Steel did manage to straighten out his clothes. Silver helped him with a bit of grooming, though his efforts did produce a particularly grumpy remark on Steel’s part.

Finally they were ready to go and with Silver leading the way they left the workroom, carefully making their way down the stairs and into the main hall. As it turned out they had more luck than anything else, as they made it into the cellar without being spotted by anyone.

Once they were down there, it didn’t take them long to find the right storage room where the spectre had been locked in. Fortunately Victoria had left the key to it behind in the workroom and Steel had pocketed it earlier on.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Silver asked, watching Steel from the floor. He felt terribly nervous and thought he should make at least one last attempt to change Steel’s mind.

Steel threw him an impatient look. “Balthamos told us he has managed to restrain it. I only want to observe,” he said. Pulling open the door, he stepped inside without a further word.

There was nothing left for Silver but to follow.

***

The cellar-room turned out to be completely bare, lit only by the anbaric lamp that Victoria had used in the library last night. It was probably five yards long and at its far side wall Silver could see the spectre huddled on the ground. While Steel pulled the door shut behind him, Silver watched the creature. It looked oddly bent, as if Balthamos had done something to its shape. _No_ , he interrupted himself, _not its shape; it never had a defined shape to begin with. He has done something to its dimensions,_ he corrected himself.

He looked up at Steel. “Can it move?”

Steel didn’t look back. Instead he stared at the creature, a frown on his face. “No,” he answered. “It should be able to rise to its feet, but it can’t leave the spot Balthamos has tethered it to.”

That at least was a relief, Silver thought. Looking at the creature invariably brought back memories of his last encounter with it. There hadn’t been so much as a conscious decision involved when he had reacted to the spectre’s threat. Seeing it move towards Steel and rushing forward to intercept it had been mostly instinct on his part. It had felt like a nightmare that had ended abruptly and rather painfully when he had collided with it.

He felt his fur bristle at the thought and most probably Steel had sensed his growing unease, because he leaned down and picked Silver up. “What do you sense from it?” he asked casually, his hand idly stroking over Silver’s fur as he held him in his arms.

“Darkness,” Silver replied. It wasn’t much of an answer. Silver was aware of that, but right now there wasn’t much else to say. To his surprise, there didn’t come any chastising comment from Steel. His muttered, “Yes, that’s all I sense, too,” sounded oddly mild.

“Let’s take a closer look,” he said only a moment later. Without waiting for any reply, he slowly began to walk towards the spectre.

It caused Silver’s unease to quickly rise to open alarm. “Steel,” he said urgently. “I really don’t think this is a good idea!” He noticed that the spectre that so far had crouched on the ground in apathy seemed to focus on them now. It felt as if a black spotlight of attention was searching the room for any disturbance until it finally settled on them. Silver felt Steel’s grip tighten on him, as they both watched the spectre slowly rise to its full height.

“So, what exactly are you planning to do now? Question it?” Silver asked nervously. He had a sinking feeling that whatever Steel might be planning, he wouldn’t like it.

“Do you trust me, Silver?” Steel said in lieu of an answer, and he was speaking in that oddly soft voice again that Silver was fast beginning to hate.

“What kind of question is that?” Silver asked again.

Steel ignored that question either. “You see, I think I have an idea how to resolve this. “Call it—” he paused. “Call it intuition.”

By now they were standing almost directly in front of the spectre, separated by not much more than an arm’s length between them. Silver could feel its attention, could feel it staring at them, emanating darkness, but also something more. There was a terrible sense of yearning now, a yearning so strong it felt almost like a physical pull.

“Intuition?” he asked, his voice sounding almost shrill even to his own ears. He felt Steel’s grip on him change, and for a moment, a moment filled with something close to terror, he imagined Steel throwing him at the spectre. He started to squirm in panic.

“Hush,” Steel muttered again, loosening his hold on Silver slightly. “I won’t let you go. This is something we’ll have to do together.”

Suddenly Silver thought he understood what Steel was intending to do. “You want to touch it!” he accused him, but Steel slowly shook his head.

“No. Not _I_ , Silver. I believe it is _we_ that have to do this,” he answered slowly, his gaze unwaveringly fastened on the spectre.

“But why?” Silver whined. ”Wouldn’t it be safer to wait till Balthamos returns?” He squirmed again, straining against Steel’s grip. “No, Steel,” he finally said, doing his best to sound as reasonable as possible. “I don’t want to have any part in this.” He squirmed again and managed to slip out of Steel’s grasp.

With the door tightly closed he had no way of leaving the room without Steel’s help, but at least he could bring as much distance between himself and this being of darkness. Without looking up he swiftly crossed the room, sitting down in front of the door, turning his back to it and finally giving Steel a defiant look.

Steel had turned around and stared back at him, his face darkened by an unhappy look. As he stood there wordlessly, the spectre behind him, towering behind and over him like a brooding shadow, he had something sinister about him, a darkness that wasn’t entirely new, though it had never felt as frightening to Silver as it did now. Steel and the spectre, all of the sudden they appeared to him like a inseparable pair, set out to drown him between them. Instinctively he cowered, pressing backwards until his haunches pressed against the rough wood of the cellar-room’s door.

Steel sighed softly, a sound that spoke of surprise as well as grudging assent. Silver blinked and, as abruptly as the sinister vision had appeared in front of his eyes, was it gone again. The Steel that hastily came towards him, held nothing sinister anymore, but was full of concern. Even the lingering tinge of annoyance Silver could sense within him felt welcomingly familiar, an integral part of Steel that had always been there and nothing to be worried about. He watched Steel crouch low in front of him, then folding his legs until he sat cross-legged before Silver.

“Silver,” he said. “I might not have definite proof, but I believe I know what has happened to us. Will you listen?”

Silver looked at him closely. A part of Silver urged him to say ‘No’, a part that didn’t want to hear any theories, but yearned to return to the workroom where they would be safe. Yet, another part of him recognised the safety as the illusion it was. Hesitantly he nodded.

Steel drew a deep breath, then he said, “Consider what we know. This spectre appeared shortly or immediately after our arrival here, and after Balthamos had done to us whatever it was exactly that he did. It seems to seek out humans, but it shies away from Balthamos.” He paused, looking at Silver searchingly, as if he wanted to make sure that Silver was following. “Now think. What if it doesn’t seek out humans, what if it’s seeking for _us_? I believe that this spectre—” He turned, pointing at the being with his outstretched hand. “This spectre was created, just as Balthamos suspects, when he stripped us of our powers. This spectre, Silver, I think it resembles what we have lost.”

Silver’s mind was reeling at the strangeness of the idea. “Then why did you protest when Balthamos hinted at a possible connection between the spectre and us?” he asked.

“Because I hadn’t thought it completely through,” Steel answered immediately, only the slightest note of self-deprecation creeping into his voice. “But if you think of this being as a part of us, a part that we are missing, so many things begin to make sense! It explains the pull we are both feeling, and yes, Silver, I know that you’re sensing it, too.” He gave Silver a meaningful look. “It also explains, why it transforms humans into statues, I think.”

Silver frowned at that. Admittedly Steel’s words were beginning to make sense, but he couldn’t imagine how such grisly a phenomenon should fit into his explanation.

“Integration, Silver! It wants to reunite, to make whole what has been forcibly split apart, but in choosing a normal human failure is unavoidable. Instead of the desired reintegration of an element we’ve ended up with a human turned into a statue made out of metal. The reason seems clear. There’s no place to integrate our elemental aspects with normal humans and so their state of matter is changed in a way that was never meant to be. The spectre needs _us_ and I think it needs _both_ of us. That’s why it didn’t work with you alone.” He fell silent for a moment and laid a hand on Silver’s arm. “You see it, don’t you, Silver?”  

The idea was dreadful, but yes, Silver thought, presented like this every conclusion that Steel had come to, seemed to fit into the picture he was painting. Maybe Steel was really onto something, he thought, surprised at himself and the tiny sliver of hope Steel’s explanation had sparked in his mind. He drew a wavering breath. “Oh, very well,” he said, “But if this goes wrong, I promise you, you’ll never hear the end of it.”

Steel only chuckled in response. Carefully he reached out, picking Silver up as he stood. He turned around and with Silver held in his arms he walked across the room, until they once again stood directly in front of the spectre. Taking one of Silver’s hands in his own, he stretched both of them out. “Ready?” he asked.

“No, not in the slightest, but when has that stopped us in the past,” Silver replied.

Steel took another step and their entwined hands touched the spectre.

The result was nothing like Silver had expected. For the briefest of moments, it seemed as if absolutely nothing was happening. He was just opening his mouth to say so, when it felt as if a gigantic fist hit him squarely across the chest, sending him and Steel tumbling backwards, hitting first the floor and then the opposite wall of the room with brutal force.

For long moments silence fell over the room, before a groan, coming from Steel broke it at last.

Silver opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. He felt battered. “Steel?” he asked.

Steel coughed, and then he spoke, his voice sounding slightly hoarse. “Well, that could have gone better.”


	27. Steel

“I’m afraid, I’m not returning with the best of news,” Balthamos said. He had arrived rather late in the evening and the four of them had sat down to discuss the angel’s findings.

Before his arrival Victoria had come up to the workroom twice, bringing Steel some food on one occasion and fresh clothes on the other, but apart from that nothing interesting had happened. Steel had tried to pass the time by reading in some of the old tomes that lined up the bookshelves in the workroom, but he had struggled with an increasing headache that had caused him to give up on that endeavour almost immediately.

Balthamos had been silent at first, allowing Victoria to relate to them everything that was happening in the college right now. As it turned out the authorities had withdrawn a good number of their investigators. Two statues, as well as a non-too impressive bloodstain in the vaults of the Palmerian Tower didn’t make up for much of a case. “I’ve heard they’re rather disappointed that your body still hasn’t been found floating in the Thames,” she had told Steel with a smirk. “Lord Asriel is still lying low while our dear college master is doing everything to pretend that the whole matter will resolve itself on its own over time.” She had shaken her head. “Nothing more than wishful thinking if you ask me, though it might actually work if we are successful.” Her words had caused everyone to look at Balthamos.

“I wish, I could tell you more, but it’s only a hypothesis I’ve come back with,” the angel said.

“Just tell us,” Silver replied curtly from his vantage point on top of the sofa’s backrest.

Earlier Steel had tried to lure him down from there, but strangely enough Silver appeared to be uncharacteristically averse to coming too near to him. He had felt both resentment and anger coming from his dæmon. He thought he understood and deserved both. What puzzled him, however, was a strange, but very strong reluctance he could feel emanating from Silver. After their return from the cellar, Silver had been very silent for most of the time, only answering when Steel had asked him a direct question. Every time Steel had asked if everything was alright, he had gotten nothing more than a monosyllabic “I’m fine” by Silver. Eventually Steel had given up asking.

“I have talked to Baruch again, and we have discussed everything that the four of us have discovered so far. From what has happened it is clear that this spectre, this shadow has been created by my own actions. I’m absolutely sure of it,” Balthamos said.

Steel felt Silver shift behind him. This wasn’t news to them, in fact it seemed they were far ahead of the angel, even if his own theory obviously hadn’t worked as expected.

“What makes you so certain now?” Silver asked.

The angel didn’t answer immediately. Instead he stared at them, a thoughtful expression on his face, a flicker of puzzlement that came and was gone so fast it was barely noticeable. “There are things I learned during my fight with the creature, things I didn’t understand directly afterwards, but that have become much clearer to me now.” He paused again, staring at them quizzically. “Is everything alright with you?” he asked, his gaze wandering back and forth between the two of them.

Steel only shrugged his shoulders. He had no qualms about telling the angel what he and Silver had discovered, but he wanted to hear what Balthamos had found out first.

The angel stared at them a moment longer. Then he continued, “Unfortunately there is still one thing that I’m not sure about. That is the right course of action to reverse the changes I’ve made. Maybe we need to destroy this spectre, and by destroying it, we’ll set free whatever it is that’s bound within. Yet there’s also the possibility that by destroying the spectre we’re choosing to destroy that which is trapped within. Both alternatives are viable, but only one can be true.” He lightly spread his folded wings, a gesture Steel had come to know as the angel’s way of shrugging his shoulders apologetically.

“So, we’re back at the same point we were this morning,” Victoria said. “We have to decide what to do next and we don’t know how to decide.” She frowned. Her dæmon shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, expressing both their uneasiness.

Steel felt Silver move behind him, sensed the shift in Silver’s presence not unlike the forward motion of a wave. He felt Silver jump down from the backrest and then appear at his side. There was a quiet restlessness to his movements. The word felt strange in that context, but Steel couldn’t come up with a better one. He watched Silver carefully, saw him raise a hand, putting it lightly on Steel’s thigh. What happened then made him flinch in surprise.

Silver’s hand began to shimmer. The effect was very slight, almost negligible, but it was there, a shimmering translucency as if his hand wasn’t completely there.

“What have you done?” Balthamos asked, his voice suddenly reduced to a hush, tinged with dread.

Steel looked at Silver and their eyes met. He didn’t understand what was happening here. Had Silver known of this? Why hadn’t he told Steel before? He drew a deep breath and turning to Balthamos he began, “I thought I had an idea how to resolve our problem. I thought that if you had somehow created this spectre when you tried to stunt our elemental powers then you might have transferred them to it. I thought that Silver and I together might be able to regain them, to reintegrate them into ourselves. After all, Silver wasn’t turned into a statue when he came into contact with the spectre.”

“I think I know where this is going, and I don’t like it,” Victoria muttered. She was visibly retreating into her armchair.

Steel glanced over at her, but then he returned his attention to Balthamos. “Silver and I headed down into the cellar,” he continued, carefully watching Balthamos’ face for any kind of reaction. “When we entered the room where you’ve locked it up, it didn’t seem to react to us at first, but when we stepped closer it became aware of our presence. It got to its feet and it began to pull.”

“What do you mean?” Balthamos cut in sharply. He had been almost completely impassive so far, but Steel’s last words seemed to have startled him.

Steel shook his head. He didn’t know how to explain it any better.

“It felt like being on a leash,” Silver said, taking over from him. “When we stood in front of that spectre, we both felt a terrible sense of loss, paired with an equally terrible yearning.”

Steel nodded. “We stepped closer to it and then we reached out together and touched the spectre.”

There was a moment of breathless silence following his words, before Victoria asked, “What happened?”

“We were thrown back so forcefully, we’ve actually hit the opposite wall of the room,” Silver answered. “A pity you weren’t there, I’m sure it must have looked rather spectacular.”

The tone of his voice made Steel cringe. He hadn’t forgotten Silver’s remark about not letting him get away with it any time in the near future should anything go wrong.

“But you didn’t regain your powers,” Victoria stated.

“Obviously not,” Silver replied. It rankled to admit that he had erred. His explanation had been perfect, he thought. It still was, and he couldn’t understand why it hadn’t worked.

“No, but something else must have happened,” Balthamos said. Leaning forward he stared at Silver’s hand where it rested on Steel’s thigh.

The gaze made Steel nervous. “Maybe we shouldn’t touch,” he said, though he didn’t make any attempt to move away from Silver.

“I think that might be a good idea, though I’m afraid it might be too late for such a precaution already,” Balthamos replied softly.

“What?” Steel who had been once again staring at Silver’s hand whirled around to the angel again. “What do you mean? Can’t you fix this? Fix him?” He gestured at Silver. “Touch him like you touched me when you healed that gunshot wound.”

He saw Balthamos slowly shake his head. “I think for the time being we should be a bit more careful about who touches whom.”

Hadn’t the situation been so serious the remark might have come across as rather ridiculous, and even so, Steel could sense Silver’s inward smirk, even if he couldn’t see it. He felt strangely bereft when Silver withdrew his hand.

“What is happening to me?” Silver asked.

“You’re vanishing, but I don’t understand why—,” Balthamos began, then stopped abruptly, a frown appearing on his face.

“Balthamos! Tell me!” Silver urged him.

Balthamos ignored him. Instead he looked at Steel. “I think you are right, but it’s quite possible you’ve inadvertently made matters worse instead of better. His look briefly strayed to Silver, focusing on Silver’s shimmering hand. “I think that instead of regaining from it what has been taken away, you’ve increased the separation.” He drew a shaky breath. “Whatever we’re going to do, we have to do it fast.”

Steel stared back at him, not sure if he had heard correctly. This couldn’t be. Suddenly pieces of conversations he had with Silver during the last days came back to haunt him, swirling through his mind like rags and tatters. He remembered Silver’s fear of vanishing, of becoming so immersed in his existence as a dæmon that he might lose himself. Steel had teased him about it, but now it seemed as if he might actually have brought it about, albeit _this_ kind of vanishing was of a different and far more dangerous kind. The worst thing about it, though, was that it was all Steel’s fault. It had been _him_ who had come up with the plan. It had been _him_ that had urged Silver to agree to it. Now it was Silver who had to pay for Steel’s mistake. Should he lose Silver like this, he knew he would never forgive himself. This was unacceptable.

“Destroy it!” His words cut through the room like a whiplash, hard, fast, and sharp. He felt ready to scream when Balthamos only shook his head.

“No,” the angel replied. “As I said, I believe you were right.”

“What?” Steel shot back. “You’re an idiot if you still believe that. Just look at him!” He pointed at Silver. He couldn’t believe that the angel was choosing this moment to warm up to Steel’s theory, now after it had so obviously backfired.

Balthamos vehemently shook his head. “No,” he repeated. “Your idea was correct. You just overlooked one missing factor. For this to work my presence is needed as well.” He sighed. “I had planned to do a bit more of preliminary research, but it seems we’re pressed for time now.” He looked at Silver and sighed again. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s for the best this way. Maybe it’s better if we don’t think too much about it. I’m prone to overanalysing sometimes or so Baruch tells me.” He smiled briefly, but quickly turned serious again. Rising to his feet, he turned to Victoria. “The library is closed, isn’t it?” he asked.

“Yes, of course—” she began.

He didn’t let her finish. “I want the three of you to return to the main hall,” he said. “I want you to wait there while I’m going down to the cellar.”

“You’re going to fetch that spectre, aren’t you?” Victoria asked, her voice hushed in awe. “You’re going to bring it with you.”

He nodded. “It might take a while,” he warned them. Without waiting for any further questions he vanished straight through the floor.

***

After Balthamos had left, the three of them slowly made their way back to the library’s main hall. Steel watched Silver closely. He was so worried about him, seeing him move through the corridor and down the stairway, Steel felt an almost overwhelming urge to scoop him up and keep him close. Yet, Balthamos’ warning had been very clear and he wouldn’t do anything that might endanger Silver any further. He squinted in the dim light. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought that the shimmering aura surrounding Silver had already intensified in the last minutes.

“Should I switch on the lights? It would be nice to see something for a change.” Victoria asked, her question mirroring Steel’s thoughts.

He took a deep breath, then shook his head reluctantly. “I’m sick of all this sneaking around in the dark myself, but we still can’t risk attracting any attention,” he said. Silver, who had been walking in front of him, stopped and turned at his words, giving him a long look out of luminous eyes.

They entered the library’s main hall and by silent consent they crossed it and entered the smaller one, where they had captured the spectre and where the student had been turned into a statue.

Victoria walked over to the reading table she had sat at the other night and put her lamp on its top. For a moment she stood beside it, looking at the empty chair that stood in front of the table as if she thought of sitting down, but couldn’t make up her mind. Finally she stepped away from it. “Well, if we have to wait here, I can at least make myself useful,” she said at last, her attempt at purposefulness transparent to everyone. Steel didn’t comment, but he nodded at the look of helpless inquiry she threw in his direction. She nodded back at him and began picking up books that lay strewn on the tables around them.

Steel turned his attention to Silver, who was just climbing the table’s leg, obviously wanting to reach the table’s top. Steel saw his hand slip, saw him almost fall. The sight made him catch his breath. He wanted to step forward and to reach out, but of course he didn’t. He stood rooted to the spot until Silver had pulled himself up and turned towards him sitting down.

Only then did Steel move again. Walking over to the table, he pulled out a chair and sat down, turning slightly so he could look at Silver while still keeping an eye on the hall’s entrance. He wanted to know the instant when Balthamos finally showed up.

“How do you feel?” he asked and was startled when Silver reacted with a harsh scoff.

“Since when does that interest you?” Silver replied.

The question grated on Steel’s nerves. Granted he had risked both their lives down in the cellar. He had acted on a false presumption, but this general dismissal coming from Silver was a bit much. It was unfair. Of course, he cared about Silver’s wellbeing. He cared a lot about Silver, possibly more than he should. He had thought that by now the fact should be rather obvious, even to someone as fickle as Silver.

Steel frowned, wondering how to react, when sudden realization struck. He shook his head, giving Silver an incredulous look. Silver’s words may have been rude, but what Steel sensed through their link was a completely different matter. Silver’s emotions weren’t easy to interpret in their complexity. He was still angry, that much was clear. He was worried for himself, but also for Steel. There was sadness and a strong sense of melancholy intermixed with an equally strong resolve. In its entirety all this allowed for only one viable interpretation, and Steel thought he could guess.

“If you think you can push me away, think again, Silver, because it won’t work,” he said.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Silver snapped at him, his tail flicking like a whip, visually expressing the sudden flare of scared annoyance Steel could sense coming from him.

“Good,” Steel replied mildly. He had no intention of arguing right now, but neither would he back down. “I think we both know I’m far too thick-headed for such a strategy to work.” He watched Silver out of narrowed eyes, saw him slightly relax, felt the tiny sliver of grudging acceptance and amusement.

“I wonder what’s keeping them so long,” Silver said at last, breaking a silence that was just on the verge of turning awkward. He turned slightly towards the hall’s entrance. He swayed, and then hunched forward, resting himself on both his hands. It seemed as if Silver was weakening by the minute now.

Again Steel had to fight against the urge to just pull him close. “I don’t understand why it’s affecting you so strongly,” he said angrily, crossing his arms in front of his chest for wont of anything better to do with them. He wasn’t expecting any real answer.

Silver chuckled tiredly. “Maybe I’m the weakest link,” he replied lightly, yet his attempt at teasing achieved only the exact opposite, frightening Steel even more.

“Don’t say such foolish things,” he snapped.

He was just trying to come up with a more profound comment, when a sliver of movement from the hall’s entrance caught his eye. Finally Balthamos had returned.

The angel slowly came towards them and behind him the spectre appeared, a dark shadow following the light, the contrast heightened by their proximity to one another. It looked as if the spectre was following the angel freely. Steel hoped that was a good sign, even though the sight made his skin crawl in perceived danger.

He looked at Victoria, who had stopped in her task of re-shelving an armful of books. “I think it would be best if you stayed clear,” he told her.

She nodded and setting the books down, she took a few more steps away from them.

Steel stood up and took a step back from the table towards the main aisle, moving slightly forward, so he was between Silver and the two beings coming near. He was such a lousy shield in his current state, but he couldn’t supress the instinct.

“I hope you’re not planning to do anything rash, Steel.” Balthamos spoke, his voice raised in warning. “It has taken me a lot of effort to convince it—” He broke of, shook his head. “—to convince _him_ that our actions weren’t intentionally harmful.”

Balthamos stopped right in front of Steel, lowering his voice to barely a whisper, he said, “We need his help for this to work.”

Steel stared at Balthamos. Then he looked over the angel’s shoulder at the shape of darkness hovering there. His throat felt dry and he licked his lips. “Him?” he asked.

Balthamos cocked his head to the side. “There’s a lot of you and Silver in there, so, yes, I believe ‘him’ is the proper form of address,” he answered. He cast a glance at the dæmon, then looked back at Steel. “Are you ready? We don’t have much time.”

“What do you want me to do?” Steel asked. He wasn’t ready. He didn’t trust Balthamos, not completely at least, not with his life, and most certainly not with Silver’s, but one look over at his dæmon showed him that in this at least Balthamos was right: Silver didn’t have much time left.

“Pick up your dæmon. Step out into the middle of the aisle. Hold him close to your chest and then I would advise you to close your eyes,” Balthamos said matter-of-factly. Somehow the way he described it, his instructions sounded disturbingly like the steps leading up to an execution.

Maybe Steel’s distrust shone in his eyes or maybe Balthamos could sense it in Steel as clearly as Steel could feel Silver’s slow fading, but whatever the reason, the angel leaned forward and whispered again, “This will work for all of us or for none.” His eyes glinted in the evening’s waning light. “I for one think that’s one thing to be thankful for.”

Steel didn’t answer, but in a strange way he felt reassured. Either they would be successful or none of them would survive. He stepped to the table and holding out his arms he said, “Come here.”

Silver came in an instant, and Steel didn’t bother to help him up to his shoulder, but simply held him in his arms as he turned around and walked towards the middle of the hall’s main aisle. He exchanged another brief look with Victoria, before turning around until he was facing Balthamos again.

The angel came forward, and then circled Steel to stand behind him, giving him a clear view of the spectre in front of him. It was a frightening sight, and a terrible place to be, standing between these two opposing forces. They would move in on him, on him and Silver, and the process that had started all this would be either reverted or they would be utterly destroyed.

“Now would be a good time to close your eyes,” Balthamos whispered.

“Now?” Steel asked. “Aren’t there any preparations necessary?” he asked. He didn’t know why, but all of the sudden everything seemed to be happening far too fast. Something was missing, something important. His mind was a frantic whirl as he tried to discern what it might be.

It was the touch of a small, furry hand that brought his whirling thoughts to an abrupt halt. He felt Silver’s hand steal into his own, felt the slight squeeze. ‘It’s alright,’ it said. Cautiously he tightened his own grip. He drew a deep breath and did as the angel had asked.

For a second there was absolute stillness, followed by a mighty rush of air. Then it felt as if he was falling. The sensation wasn’t too uncomfortable at first, but as it continued, growing in intensity, it soon became hard to bear. Then it changed.

He wasn’t falling anymore. Instead it felt as if he was being sifted through. He had no knowledge of his body; the sensation appeared to be limited to his mind, and not only his. He could sense Silver, too, nearby and familiar. There was also another mind that felt farther away, even if thinking of farther away didn’t make much sense in a place without any three-dimensional characteristics. This other mind was unknown to him. It had to be Balthamos.

Steel had no idea if anything was expected of him. Balthamos hadn’t said anything to that effect. So he simply waited.

“You’re far more merged with one another, than I would have expected,” Balthamos voice suddenly whispered inside of his mind.

Steel didn’t understand what the words were supposed to mean. “Is that good or bad?” He waited and wondered if Balthamos had heard his question.

The answer took a while, but eventually the angel whispered again, “I’m not sure, if I’m able to both reintegrate your powers and separate you as individuals to exactly the same state that you were before.” The angel’s voice sounded hesitant. “I think you should brace yourself,” he said at last.

***

When Steel opened his eyes after what felt like an eternity, there was a whole series of discoveries he made in rapid succession. He was still standing in the library. The spectre in front of him was gone. His body and mind both felt as if someone had gone to great lengths to beat him up as systematically as possible. Those three facts he took in and dealt with in good stead. What threw him completely was the last, the realization that Silver was gone, his dæmon had vanished.

In his place, Steel found himself wrapped around someone, who was hugging him as if their lives depended on it, someone who was quite a bit taller than himself, someone whose shoulder was slightly too much skin and bones to provide a comfortable resting place for Steel’s chin. Apart from everything else, it was also a rather naked someone.

 _Silver?_ he asked, relying solely on his mind rather than his voice for the first time in what felt like aeons.

The initial answer was nothing more than a pleased hum, accompanied by a slight tightening of the arms slung around Steel’s waist.

 _Silver_ , he repeated, this time not bothering to ask again. He decided that a firm stance was called for here. There was no telling what Silver might try next if Steel didn’t call him to order now. Choosing his best reprimanding tone of voice he told his wayward colleague. _Clothes, Silver. You can also let go now._

 _Spoilsport. T_ he answer came suspiciously fast, carrying in its wake a wave of amusement, but eventually Silver complied and took a step back.

Steel looked at him, seeking out his eyes, holding his gaze for long moments afterwards. It was a surreal feeling, seeing Silver like this. Silver, for his part, appeared to be slightly less shaken than Steel, but they would both need time to adjust back to their normal selves. Surprisingly there seemed to be no feeling of awkwardness or unease between them. Maybe that would come later, but for now all that Steel felt was an overwhelming sense of relief. He could sense it in Silver, too, a strong echo of the same emotion, but paired also with such a deep joy. Steel didn’t even try to suppress his answering smile.

Silver in turn looked surprised for a second, before a slow grin spread over his face. He chuckled and then he laughed out loud. It was an infectious laughter that filled the hall, uninhibited and carefree. Steel listened to it, but only briefly, before he joined into it. It simply was too infectious not to.


	28. Silver

Eventually their laughter died down again, until it reverted back to soft chuckles and amused glances that finally segued into a companionable silence. There was something positively enthralling about it thought Silver. He couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed so long and hard, and above all so carefree in ages. He was also absolutely sure that he had never, ever shared this kind of experience with Steel of all people. Yet here they stood, side by side leaning against one of the library’s tables, while Balthamos and Victory watched them with bemused expressions.

“I assume you are well?” the angel finally asked once it seemed likely that they would at least listen to his question. It had a slightly sobering effect on Silver.

Steel’s face returned to his normal serious expression. He straightened up and pushed himself away from the table. “Yes,” he said. “It appears we are finally back to the way we were.” He bowed his head slightly, though it wasn’t a gesture of gratitude, only one of acknowledgement.

Silver understood him perfectly well, even if he felt a little more magnanimous towards the angel. Still the fact remained that it had been Balthamos who had caused all their troubles in the first place. He might have acted under orders by Lord Asriel, but that didn’t lessen his own responsibility. Two humans had died after all and nothing would bring them back. Not even Balthamos impressive capabilities were enough to achieve that kind of miracle.

With his own facilities restored Silver was now able to fully comprehend just how powerful and alien the angel was in comparison to them. He and Steel could see him for what he truly was and the realization left Silver feeling decidedly awkward.

“Then I will leave you. I’ve lingered longer than I had anticipated already,” Balthamos replied earnestly. He seemed to be as uneasy as the two of them, because he suddenly averted his eyes, his gaze fastening on Victoria, his expression lightening immediately. “Thank you,” he told her, and with only a brief nod in Silver’s and Steel’s direction he left in his usual fashion, ignoring as mundane things as walls or roofs and going straight through the hall’s ceiling.

“Pity,” Victoria remarked. “I would have liked to keep him around for a while longer.” Her voice sounded wistful as she said it. “I’ve always wanted to learn more about angels,” she added.

“Well, I guess it’s time for us to say our farewells, too,” Silver said, feeling eager to leave this place behind and return home. He took a step forward past Steel, contemplating if he should simply shake her hand or maybe give her a quick hug as a goodbye. The latter would certainly produce a more amusing reaction from Steel he thought.

He was stopped abruptly when a hand on his arm pulled him back, almost causing him to stumble. “What?” he asked, shooting Steel a questioning look that turned fast towards incredulity when he saw Steel silently shaking his head.

“We’re not finished here, Silver.”

Silver could only stare wordlessly for a while. Normally it was always Steel who was the first pushing for them to leave. Now, however, his face and mind spoke of an odd reluctance.

 _What’s wrong with him?_ Silver thought to himself. It definitely wasn’t like Steel to linger. Silver could see that there were some explanations left to be given, but he assumed that Ms Joyce would be more than up to the task. He glanced at Steel, studying his face, trying to guess at his motivations. Slowly a suspicion took root in Silver’s mind.

Could it be that Steel was feeling reluctant to leave this place behind? That he felt nostalgic about giving up on it? The idea appeared far-fetched, but the experiences they’d both made here had been so utterly out of their usual frame of reference. Who knew what effect they might have had on Steel? While Silver’s transformation into a dæmon had been unsettling enough, he could easily imagine that the experience of having been turned into a human must have been far more disturbing for Steel. In contrast to Silver, Steel had never been too enthusiastic about making new experiences in the first place, but in the last days Steel had been forced to make rather a lot of them. Maybe he had trouble reverting back so suddenly?

The idea made Silver smile. If Steel wanted to stay a little while longer to gradually acclimatise himself back into being an element once again, it would be the least Silver could do to accommodate him. Putting his own hand over Steel’s where it still rested on Silver’s arm, he said, “Of course, Steel. It’s alright if you want to stay a bit longer.”

Steel gave him a slightly suspicious look in response, but he didn’t say anything. He only dropped his hand and nodded once. 

“Why don’t you come up to the work-room then?” Victoria interrupted their exchange. “It’s far too late for me to do anything useful today. We can talk and you can stay there for the night.” She looked at Silver. “I’d like to see you in proper day-light at least once before you go,” she added with a slight smirk.

Silver grinned back at her, taking the step forward unhindered now that Steel had prevented before. He fetched her hand, brought it to his lips and dropped a brief kiss on it. “How could we say no to such a gracious offer,” he answered, studiously ignoring the derisive snort that came from Steel.

***

Up in the workroom the atmosphere was slightly uneasy at first. Silver busied himself with making them tea. When he brought it over to the table, Victoria sat in her usual armchair and Steel had claimed the other one, leaving the sofa to Silver.

Leaning forward, Silver poured a cup of tea for each of them while Victoria lit the anbaric lamp she had brought back up from the library. She extinguished the room’s brighter main lights until they sat in the dimmer and more comfortable illumination provided by the lamp.

Steel appeared to be deep in thought, obviously not giving either of them much attention, though he briefly stared at Silver, an eyebrow tauntingly raised, when Silver offered him one of the cups. He accepted it, however, and for a while afterwards they sat silently, sipping their tea until most of the lingering tension had eased away.

“Will you be alright up here?” Victoria finally asked.

It wasn’t the question she truly wanted to ask; that much was patently clear. Silver had no trouble imagining the real ones that she left unspoken. What exactly has happened in the library? Are you back to the way you were? How did it feel? Is the spectre really gone, and what was it? He would have liked to answer at least some of them for her, but just as she hadn’t voiced them, he wouldn’t answer aloud. “We’ll be fine,” he said gently. “Thank you, Victoria.”

She nodded, no sign of the disappointment she undoubtedly had to feel now visible on her face. Then she got up. “I’ll see you in the morning,” she said with a smile and strode out of the room.

***

After she had gone there was another long silence that stretched out between them. It wasn’t exactly uncomfortable. Instead it felt slightly anticipatory. Silver thought that it was leading up to something, even though he had no idea what that something might be. He wondered if he should bring up anything important. He assumed there was a lot they should talk about.

Raising the cup to his lips he cast a look over its rim, only to discover himself the focus of such an intense scrutiny by Steel, he instantly raised his cup a little further, if only to break the eye-contact. He wondered what Steel was up to, but he felt reluctant to ask. Eventually he had to put the cup down again. He knew he couldn’t stall looking back at Steel forever and so he lowered his cup and looked up. He hadn’t expected anything else, but it was nonetheless unnerving to see that Steel was still staring at him, his eyes glittering in the low lamp-light.

“So,” Silver said, stretching out the syllable, waiting for Steel to cut in with whatever was bothering him. It was an invitation; one he hoped Steel would accept.

“Why don’t you sleep, Silver?”

Silver froze, completely taken aback by the question. What was that supposed to mean? He didn’t understand the suggestion, and though Steel’s voice had sounded perfectly normal, Silver had a sudden sense of something that felt almost like danger. _Maybe he wants to get rid of you. Maybe he wants to get rid of the only witness to his weakness here._ Silver had no idea where these crazy thoughts had come from, but for a second they danced in his mind like teasing flames of doubt before he briskly stamped them out. Such thoughts were really ridiculous he chastised himself. Wordlessly he stared at Steel, willing him to explain.

“Come on, I know it wouldn’t be the first time. You’ve indulged in the experience before, haven’t you? And I’m not talking of your time as my dæmon.” Steel said, giving Silver a thin-lipped smile.

Now Silver was even more confused. He was certain that Steel was trying to tell him something, but whatever the message was, Silver obviously was unable to understand it. He wondered if he should just say so and ask Steel to explain, but then he sighed. He knew from experience that Steel in such a cryptic mood could be a bottomless well of frustration. Maybe it was better to postpone his questions until the morning.

He swung his legs up and, turning on his side so he was facing Steel, he stretched himself out on the sofa, putting his head on his folded arm in lieu of a pillow. He had no qualms about spending a few hours asleep. There was one question, however, he simply _had_ to ask.

“What about you, Steel? Are you going to sleep, too?” he said with a smirk.

“No. I’m going to watch.” Steel’s answer was dead serious.

 _I hate it when he says things like this_ , Silver thought. It took him a ridiculously long time to fall asleep.


	29. Steel

Steel heard Victoria coming up the stairs long before she opened the door to the workroom. Very briefly he considered meeting her at the door, but then disregarded the idea as irrelevant. Instead he kept up his scrutiny of Silver. His colleague was still deeply asleep. The fact wasn’t too much of a surprise, since Steel had used certain techniques to make certain that Silver would stay asleep as long as Steel needed him to.

After yesterday’s events and their eventual outcome it had seemed prudent to Steel to do a thorough analysis of both himself and Silver. He hadn’t expected that analysis to take the whole night, but he reasoned that doing such things really wasn’t his speciality. More than once during the night he had thought of Sapphire and how much easier this would be with her help. Apart from that he had to admit to an almost pleasurable quality of this undertaking — a pleasurable quality he had indulged in with more than a little guilt, though indulged in it he had.

“I hope you spent the night comfortably enough,” Victoria interrupted his musings, standing in the open doorway she gave him a friendly smile.

Steel hadn’t heard her come in. He turned in his chair, giving her a polite nod in return. “It was adequate,” he replied.

Silver’s scoff, coming from behind Steel, was as deprecatory as Steel would have expected had he been aware that Silver was waking up. He turned around, looking at Silver.

His colleague had already sat up and was occupied with righting his clothes and hair. He gave Steel a disapproving glance, before he looked at Victoria, gracing her with one of his best dazzling smiles. He patted the sofa beside him. “Come here, my dear,” he said.

She smiled back at him and, following his invitation, sat down beside him.

“I must say I’ve never slept more soundly than last night,” Silver continued once she was seated. “Isn’t that right, Steel?” he added, looking at Steel again, his smile still firmly in place. Yet the instant Victoria’s attention turned from him to Steel his expression changed to a suspicious frown.

Steel decided to ignore the question in favour of one of his own. “Have you talked to the master?” he asked Victoria.

She nodded. “Yes, I went to his rooms first thing in the morning. The poor man wasn’t even dressed yet.” She chuckled at the memory, casting a fleeting glance at Silver who grinned back knowingly. She continued, “I’ve informed him of your current whereabouts and I’ve assured him that we’ve managed to set everything to rights. Apart from that I haven’t given him any details. I’ve only told him that you would visit him later.”

“Very good,” Steel answered. “Then let’s not waste any more time and get on with it.”

This time Silver’s look of disapproval was positively glowering.

***

Together the three of them left the library building. Outside it was a bright and crisp autumn morning. Steel looked around the courtyard, suddenly struck by the sheer normality of the scene. Staff and students were filling the precinct, their voices mingling as they talked and shouted and laughed. He took it all in, took it in the way only an element could. The scene looked utterly dull and the realization felt like balm to his soul. Things might not be completely back to the way they were before, but for him it was close enough.

A polite cough from Silver interrupted his thoughts.

“I hope you’ll stop by the next time you’re in the vicinity,” Victoria told Steel once he had turned around towards her again.

Steel didn’t know what to answer. It was highly unlikely that they would ever meet again. Fortunately Silver decided to take over, thus freeing him from the responsibility of coming up with something diplomatic.

“Should the opportunity arise, I’m sure we will,” Silver said to her. “Though we’re not free in our choices,” he added in a cautioning tone.

“Don’t worry. I’m not holding my breath. I know a thing or two about elementals. I’m a librarian you know.” She made a sweeping gesture towards the large building behind them. “I have actually _read_ some of the books in there. They say that elementals are almost as unpredictable as the Gyptians, though that most certainly is a prejudice, wouldn’t you say?” She grinned and Silver grinned back.

Steel wasn’t sure if he understood the whole meaning of what was said, but it didn’t seem too important. Silver definitely appeared to enjoy himself. He was practically radiating with joyfulness.

“Goodbye then,” Steel said with a polite nod of his head.

“And thank you,” Silver added. He hesitated, but then he took Victoria’s hand and shook it enthusiastically.

***

Their walk over the college precinct was short this time. With something akin to idle curiosity Steel noted that it was the first time they could walk side by side. Their presence drew quite a few curious looks, but no one approached or questioned them. Steel wondered how long it would take before Silver would begin with his own questions. It was less than a minute.

 _So_ , _last night._ Silver’s voice echoed in his mind _._

 _What about it?_ Steel asked back. He almost smiled at the sense of incredulity coming from Silver. He knew he would have to explain himself eventually. Silver needed to know, but there was no reason why Steel shouldn’t make him work for the answers. He expected at least a little more effort.

 _Steel, I know for certain that you’ve done something to me,_ Silver all but whined. _I just don’t know what and more importantly why?_

 _There’s no need to worry, Silver,_ he replied, fully aware that he wasn’t telling his colleague anything useful, even if he was also telling him the absolute truth.

Silver gave him an irritated look, making Steel wonder if it was at least partly that discrepancy that was causing Silver’s frustration.

Steel relented if only a little. _I made sure that you slept soundly, nothing more,_ he elaborated.

Silver stopped abruptly. Turning towards him, he grabbed Steel’s shoulders and asked aloud, “But why?”

For a moment Steel looked at him wordlessly, one eyebrow raised, his best ‘you really should come up with the answer on your own’ expression on his face. He waited, but Silver held onto him doggedly, his face showing nothing but grim determination.

 _I had to make sure that you, Silver, were truly you_ , he said at last. He broke Silver’s grip easily and, walking ahead, he entered the college’s main residential building.

Steel had almost reached the door leading to the master’s rooms before Silver finally caught up with him.

“Are you checking our tolerance for separation?” Steel asked with amusement, stopping so he could turn to Silver again.

Silver shook his head, a resigned smile on his face. “You’re impossible sometimes. Just tell me this: if you checked on me, you know that I’m me. I mean, I’m the real me. We’re back to the way we were. You’re Steel and I’m Silver again, right?” There was a ring of insecurity in his voice now.

Steel considered the circumstances and chose his answer accordingly. _More or less_ , he answered, switching back to thoughts. He turned and knocked at the master’s door, studiously ignoring Silver’s exasperated, _More or less? What do you mean by that?_

***

Their conversation with the master turned out to be brief but satisfactory. The old man eyed them with considerable suspicion at first, but it didn’t take more than Silver telling a charming little tale about his time as a dæmon to assuage most of the master’s reservations about them.

Naturally Silver hadn’t told him anything of real importance, but it seemed that it was especially the more ‘human’ elements of Silver’s tale that lent him credibility in the master’s eyes.

“So, we’re safe again,” the master finally said, sounding relieved. His gaze went from Silver to Steel as if he needed the affirmation of both.

The master and Steel were sitting in the two armchairs in front of the living-room’s fireplace. Earlier on Silver had leaned against the fire-place’s mantle, but after a while he had walked over to Steel, perching himself on the chair’s armrest. Now Steel glanced up at Silver and they exchanged a long look. “Yes,” he answered slowly.

 _You should leave Balthamos out of it_ , Silver told him, switching to thought alone.

 _I agree. I expect he will be much more careful in the future, but what about Lord Asriel?_ Steel asked.

Silver nodded almost imperceptibly.

“I think that sooner or later you’ll have to do something about his lordship, however,” Steel said to the master. “He won’t stop in his ambitions. He’s a dangerous man.”

The master slowly shook his head, his face taking on a sorrowful expression. “I hear you. I just wish there was another way.” He sighed deeply. “But should the need arise, I will make the right decision.”

Suddenly he clapped his hands, the resulting sound so loud, it made his dæmon almost take flight. “How about a glass of Brantwijn before you leave?” he asked with a smile.

It was a rather transparent attempt at mockery, but Steel was feeling mellow and so he obediently scowled at the human, producing a giggle of delight.

 _I told you, Steel, you’re such a charmer,_ Silver whispered in his mind.

Steel merely snorted.


	30. Silver

After their meeting with the master Steel had suggested that they should pay the old herb-garden a last visit. It was almost noon and Silver was silently wondering how much longer they would stay. He had agreed readily enough, however, and now they were sitting side by side on one of the old benches, idly watching the river.

“Do you think, they’ve accepted the story we’ve told them?” Silver finally asked. He let his head fall back, closing his eyes. They were enjoying a very mild autumn day and the sun still had enough strength to almost give the illusion of summer. Momentarily forgetting his question, Silver uncrossed his legs. He raised his arms and spread them wide, placing them on the bench’s backrest, his right arm coming to lie behind Steel’s back. It was the perfect way to catch as much of the sun’s warmth as possible and to loosen stiff limbs that were still cold from the night — except that he wasn’t a lemur anymore. The realization of the habitual trap he had stumbled into made him jerk upright. He heard Steel’s chuckle and groaned.

“This might take a while to get it out of my system,” he said, vaguely apologetic. He didn’t really expect an answer, so he was more than a little surprised when Steel said, “I’m sure. I imagine that some effects might linger for quite some time, others might even be permanent.”

Now _that_ remark was interesting. _More or less, indeed,_ he thought to himself.

 _Steel?_ he inquired, once again falling back to thought instead of spoken language.

 _Silver?_ Steel’s question in return was as unhelpful as it was meant to tease and they both knew it.

 _Care to explain that last remark to me?_ Silver asked, not fazed in the slightest. He thought of last night, of all the hints Steel had dropped during the morning and decided he wouldn’t let this one pass, regardless of what it would take.

He was startled when he sensed an abrupt change in Steel’s attention, followed by an overwhelmingly strong wave of anger. When he opened his eyes to discover the source for the emotion, he saw Lord Asriel and his dæmon entering the garden, walking towards them in a leisurely stroll.

Before Silver could react, Steel had already gotten to his feet, taking a step forward and slightly in front of Silver as if to shield him, and wasn’t that just like Steel, he thought with amusement.

Steel’s mental presence was anything but amused, however. He was a paragon of barely controlled fury, his whole body language telling everyone who cared to observe that it would take nothing more but the slightest provocation for him to attack.

Silver felt taken aback by the forcefulness of Steel’s reaction. Then he remembered that the human had actually tried to kill Steel. So perhaps Steel’s vehemence was justified after all, even if it was slightly alarming. To Silver’s even greater astonishment, Lord Asriel seemed completely oblivious to the danger of Steel’s reaction. Slowly Silver rose to his feet, just in case it should be necessary to step in.

Stopping when he was still a good distance away from Steel, Lord Asriel gave them both an arrogant nod. “I’ve heard that you’re leaving soon. A pity, really,” he said.

Steel didn’t reply. To him, the remark obviously wasn’t worth an answer. Silver, however, was easier to lure into any kind of verbal sparring, and though he wholeheartedly despised the man, he couldn’t resist to answer.

“We are,” he replied casually. “You see, this place certainly has its attractions, but after a week its charms have mostly worn off.”

For a second, Lord Asriel stared at him wordlessly. It made Silver wonder if he hadn’t heard about Silver so far and was now trying to work out who he was.

“I always suspected you were a fake,” Lord Asriel said at last. He paused, his expression turning thoughtful, “I wonder, if I had deposed of you right in the beginning, probably I wouldn’t have had so much trouble with that one.” He jerked his chin in Steel’s direction.

Hadn’t he kept such close tabs on Steel, Silver might have missed the warning signs. Even so he was barely fast enough. Throwing his arms around Steel’s waist from behind he only just managed to physically restrain him from flinging himself at the human in front of them. _Steel! He isn’t worth it,_ he thought.

Lord Asriel didn’t budge, but stood his ground, eyeing them with open disdain.

Silver was just considering the possibility that the human might have a true death wish, when he felt Steel abruptly relax in his arms.

 _You can let go now._ Steel’s thoughts had returned to their normal controlled calm.

Yet, the change had happened so suddenly, Silver couldn’t help but feel more than slightly suspicious about the sincerity of it. Without giving it much thought he moved in on Steel’s thoughts, intent to make sure that letting go was indeed a safe option. While Steel’s mind was still a far-cry away from his usual equilibrium, Silver did find no indication that Steel still wanted to attack Lord Asriel. Reluctantly Silver let go.

“You should leave,” he said to the lord, and something must have showed on his face — or maybe it was on Steel’s — because Lord Asriel turned without a word and practically fled the garden, only barely refraining from breaking out into a trot.

Silver stared at his retreating back for a moment, before he closed his eyes, drawing in a deep breath and then releasing it slowly to let go of the tension.

A finger jabbed at his chest, startling him out of it. _Do you have any idea, what you just did?_ Steel’s mental voice was as sharp and accusatory as it could get.

Silver had no idea what it was exactly that Steel might be accusing him of, but he thought he could guess. _I couldn’t very well stand by and let you kill him, Steel,_ he answered, making sure to get the right amount of indignation and incredulity across.

To his surprise, Steel appeared to be actually flustered by his response. “That’s not what I meant,” he said, returning to speech.

“I don’t understand.”

“Yes. That’s quite obvious.”

“Why don’t you explain it to me then?” Silver asked. Then out of an impulse he added, “I assume this has something to do with that ‘more or less’ you’ve taunted me with earlier, am I right?” He watched as Steel took a step back, giving Silver a considering look.

“As elements we’ve always been able to communicate telepathically,” Steel said. “We can project our thoughts and we can exchange information.”

“Yes?”

“We lost that ability when we became a human-dæmon pair. Yet over time we gained something else. We developed a strong empathic link,”

Silver really wasn’t in the mood for a lecture on mental communication now. “Yes, Steel, I know, but—” he began.

Steel interrupted him. “Now, it seems, we have both.”

“What? No, that can’t be correct,” Silver tried to protest.

“Think, Silver!” Steel told him. “Think what you just did.”

Silver tried to remember, tried to understand what Steel was talking about. “I stopped you when you were about to attack Lord Asriel.”

“And?”

“And I told you he wasn’t worth it,” Silver replied.

“And?”

He gave Steel an incredulous look.

“Come on, Silver! What then? I told you to let me go, didn’t I?”

Silver nodded. Yes, that was exactly what Steel had told him, only Silver hadn’t been sure, and he had needed to be sure. Finally it dawned on him. “Oh,” he said.

 _Yes, Oh_ , Steel repeated, switching to thought again.

Only it was more than just mere thought, now. Silver wondered how he could have overlooked that. How he could have been so blind. Now that he was aware of it, he realised how effortlessly he could sense Steel’s presence. In fact it would be quite difficult _not_ to notice, now that he knew where to look.

Before their transformation none of them had been capable of this. As Steel had said the awareness of each other’s presence had only developed while they had been human and dæmon. The fact that it was still there — the possible implications were dizzying. He suddenly understood that this most likely had been the reason for Steel’s strange behaviour last night. Steel had done far more than watching him sleep. He had spent the time trying to figure this out. Had Steel been in Silver’s mind while he had slept? Should Silver ask him about it? Did he even want to know?

 _As I said, Silver. I imagine that some effects might linger for quite some time,_ Steel interrupted his musings.

 _Or become permanent?_ Silver continued Steel’s earlier sentence, turning it into a question. He couldn’t decide if he found the idea more frightening or enticing.

 _Who knows,_ Steel replied philosophically, _but of one thing I’m sure. Eventually we’re going to find out, one way or the other._

Steel looked at him, his face a perfect mask, as unreadable to Silver as it had ever been, yet in light of the vivid link between them, the mere sight felt utterly irrelevant. _Now_ , he thought, _now we can finally go home._

_ENDE_

**Author's Note:**

> This is part two of my 'Summer of Idfic' Series. The story also fills the au: fusion prompt of my trope bingo card for Round Two.
> 
> It took me quite some time writing this story. I started back in February and now it's finally finished. I had invaluable help from lost_spook who was a wonderful rough draft reader, who held my hand and cheered me on. Yelizaveta did a great beta, smoothing out the rough edges and general weirdness that always crop up in my writing.


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